Erica Garner, the activist daughter of police chokehold victim Eric Garner, whose death stirred the Black Lives Matter movement, has been described as brain dead by doctors five days after she suffered a massive heart attack.
Garner became a vocal critic of police brutality after her father’s death in 2014. The elder Garner had been put into a chokehold by an officer with the New York Police Department and could be heard pleading, “I can’t breathe!”
Doctors say Erica Garner will not recover, the Los Angeles Times reported. Family members gathered together Thursday to be with her in Brooklyn.
The 27-year-old woman remained on life support Thursday.
“She’s not gone; she’s brain dead,” said her mother, Esaw Snipes, the Times reported. “Physically she is still with us.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton also prayed with the family at the hospital, the New York Daily News reported. He described her as a “warrior” with her activism.
“From three years ago, she never stopped,” he said. “It’s just sad to see her laying there and not the active Erica that we know.”
An asthma attack reportedly triggered the heart attack.
A tweet Wednesday on Erica Garner’s Twitter account, which has 35,000 followers, said a CAT scan found she suffered brain damage “from lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest.”
Garner also had a heart attack in August shortly after giving birth to her son, named after her father.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.