Erica Garner leads a December 11
Erica Garner, a prominent activist against police brutality whose father’s death at the hands of US officers spurred mass protests, has died after suffering a heart attack.
The 27-year-old passed away on Saturday morning after being hospitalised last week, a member of her team posted on her official Twitter account.
“She passed away this morning. The reports are real. We didn’t deserve her,” the team member wrote on Saturday.
Following her hospitalisation on December 24, Garner went into a coma.
Three days later, on December 27, a member of her team said she had suffered “major brain damage from a lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest”.
Erica’s father Eric, a 43-year-old black American, died in July 2014 after a New York City police officer held him in a chokehold.
His last words, as he was being pinned to the ground, were, “I can’t breathe”.
Viewed millions of times, the video of his death helped spur massive protests against police brutality and anti-black racism in the US.
An activist and writer, Erica had become an outspoken voice in the fight against police brutality.
Thousands of people sent her well-wishes over the past week, including US politicians, artists, civil rights activists and others.
After news of Garner’s death broke, many took to social media to pay tribute to her.
On Twitter, Reverend and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson said he sent “prayers and condolences to the family of warrior of justice, #EricaGarner”.
Shaun King, a prominent US journalist and activist, said on Saturday that “we’re less because of this loss”. —Al Jazeera