Esaw Snipes-Garner, activist and widow of Eric Garner, dies at 58

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Esaw Snipes-Garner, a fierce advocate for justice and the widow of Eric Garner, whose death at the hands of police helped galvanize a national movement, has died.

She was 58.

Passing details

Her passing was confirmed Monday morning by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, citing complications from undisclosed health issues.

Thrust into national focus by the 2014 death of her husband—captured on video as he gasped “I can’t breathe” beneath a banned police chokehold—Snipes-Garner emerged as a relentless force for justice. Confronting law enforcement and lawmakers alike, she demanded accountability and structural reform while enduring the personal cost of grieving in the public eye.

“She weathered more than any single person ever should have to—especially the loss of a child,” said Dominique Sharpton of NAN, referencing the 2017 death of Snipes-Garner’s daughter Erica, who also became a prominent activist before dying of a heart attack at 27.

Esaw Snipes-Garner was a fierce advocate

Snipes-Garner’s advocacy was marked by unflinching honesty. When former officer Daniel Pantaleo offered condolences, she famously rejected them, saying, “The time for remorse would have been when my husband was yelling to breathe”.

Though Pantaleo was eventually fired in 2019, he was never criminally charged. The Garner family reached a $5.9 million settlement with the city in 2015, and in 2022, the Staten Island street where Eric died was renamed Eric Garner Way.

Snipes-Garner is remembered not only for her strength but for her unwavering commitment to justice in the face of sorrow.

She leaves behind a legacy of her passion in the movement she helped shape—and in the lives she touched with her courage.

Her legacy lives on—in the movement she helped mold with passion, and in the hearts forever changed by her fearless spirit.