Erica Garner Declared Brain Dead After Heart Attack: Report

BROOKLYN, NY — Police-reform activist Erica Garner has been declared brain dead five days after a heart attack put her in a coma, Garner's family told the New York Daily News on Thursday. Doctors say Garner, 27, has no chance of recovery, but she remains on life support at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, her mother, Esaw Snipes-Garner, told the paper.

"She’s not gone, she’s brain dead," Snipes Garner told the Daily News. "Physically she is still with us."

Garner's father, Eric Garner, was choked to death by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in 2014. Since then the younger Garner has become a leading voice against police brutality and a champion of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Garner was put in a medically induced coma over the weekend after she suffered a massive heart attack on Saturday.

A CAT scan showed Garner "suffered major brain damage from a lack of oxygen while in cardiac arrest," a member of Garner's staff tweeted from her Twitter account on Wednesday.

Activists posted online messages of support for Garner, who gave birth to a second child in August — a son named Eric, after her father.

"This is breaking my heart. She has endured so much!" tweeted Nina Turner, an Ohio state senator who stumped with Garner for Sen. Bernie Sanders in last year's presidential election.

Read the full New York Daily News report here.

(Lead image: Erica Garner leads a protest after her father's death in 2014. Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)