Social justice advocate Erica Garner suffers 'major brain damage' after heart attack
The oldest daughter of New York police chokehold victim Eric Garner has suffered "major brain damage" following a heart attack, her family says.
Erica Garner, a mother of two children and ardent advocate for social justice, went into cardiac arrest Saturday before lapsing into a coma.
Late Wednesday, her family issued a statement on Garner's verified Twitter page saying a CT scan "shows Erica suffered major brain damage from a lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest. Please continue to pray hard for Erica and pray for her family and kids just as much."
Police said Eric Garner, a 43-year-old African-American man, was illegally selling contraband cigarettes on a Staten Island streetcorner on July 17, 2014. A group of officers attempted to arrest Garner, who weighed more than 300 pounds. Officer Daniel Pantaleo gripped Garner in a chokehold while other officers helped wrestle Garner to the ground.
A bystander with a cellphone recorded the arrest, including Garner's pleas of "I can't breathe" shortly before he died. Garner's death, along with that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., a few weeks later, generated months of protests and energized the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Garner's death was ruled a homicide, but a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo. The city later agreed to pay Garner's family $5.9 million.
Erica Garner was an unrelenting leader of the Black Lives Matter movement. Last year, she recorded a political ad supporting Bernie Sanders for president.
"I feel like a representative for people throughout this nation," she said in the ad. "I’m never giving up, I’m never going to forget and I don’t want the world to forget what happened to my father."
She suffered her first heart attack after giving birth to a boy in August, Esaw Snipes, her mother, said. Doctors said the pregnancy put a strain on her heart, which was later found to be enlarged.