Erica Garner dead: 'I can't breathe' police brutality campaigner and daughter of Eric Garner dies aged 27

Her mother says Ms Garner was 'was a warrior, she was a fighter and we didn’t pull the plug on her'

Activist Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner who died after police put him in a chokehold in 2014, has died a week after suffering a massive heart attack. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Erica Garner, whose father Eric Garner died in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by police, has died at the age of 27 after suffering a heart attack.

Mr Garner's death was caught on tape as he told Staten Island, New York police who were arresting him: "I can't breathe."

Ms Garner became a prominent activist in the years since, advocating for the safety of the black community and others from police brutality.

Family members told the New York Daily News that Ms Garner had suffered a heart attack a week ago. Her brain had been starved for oxygen following the cardiac incident and she slipped into a coma from which she never woke.

Doctors had declared her brain dead a few days ago as a person identified as a coworker took over the activists Twitter account to update followers on Ms Garner's condition.

“She was a warrior, she was a fighter and we didn’t pull the plug on her,” Esaw Snipes, Ms Garner's mother, said.

Ms Snipes said her daughter "left on her own terms.”

In the wake of her father's July 2014 death, Ms Garner led protests and the video spurred the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mr Garner, a father of six, had been unarmed when New York City Police officer Daniel Pantaleo choked him for resisting arrest after selling "loosies," or single cigarettes, outside of a store on Staten Island.

Mr Garner had asthma and told officers on the scene 11 times that he was unable to breathe.

Mr Pantaleo was stripped of his badge, gun, and put on desk duty while the department banned the use of a chokehold while arresting people.

He was never criminally charged with Mr Garner's death and continues to serve as an officer.

Ms Garner's activism led to meeting former President Barack Obama and campaigning for erstwhile presidential candidate and current Senator Bernie Sanders last year.

She, like her father, also had asthma and family members said that is what triggered the attack. However, this was not Ms Garner's first heart attack.

Just four months she gave birth to her son, named after her father. Doctors said Ms Garner's post-partum attack was a result of the pregnancy putting too much stress on her already-enlarged heart.

There has been an outpouring of support for Ms Garner's family and her activism on social media following the announcement.