by Kandiss Edwards
June 18, 2025
Snipes-Garner’s family has been in the headlines for over a decade.
On June 16, Esaw Snipes-Garner, Eric Garner’s widow, died due to undisclosed health complications. She was 58.
Snipes-Garner’s family has been in the headlines for over a decade. Eric Garner, was killed by a New York City police officer in 2014 for selling individual cigarettes. Snipes-Garner spent many years, alongside her family, advocating for justice.
“Tragedy can beget tragedy in life, and she weathered more than any single person ever should have—especially the loss of a child,” Dominique Sharpton, director of membership for the National Action Network, said in a statement, according to the New York Amsterdam News. “Yet Esaw found the resolve to keep going, keep fighting, and protect her family. She showed the nation the emotional impact unjust police killings of Black and Brown Americans can have on those left to pick up the pieces.”
Picking up the pieces of her husband’s murder was not easy. Snipes-Garner witnessed the officer who killed her husband, Daniel Pantaleo, face no consequences for his actions. New York prosecutors declined to press charges against the officer. The Justice Department declined to bring charges. Pantaleo continued to work as an NYPD officer.
Furthermore, Snipes-Garner’s daughter Erica Garner was only 27 years old when she suffered a fatal heart attack.
Initially seeking justice for her husband, Snipes-Garner later received a settlement of $5.9 million, the New York Daily News reported. She sought anonymity as the spotlight had taken its toll on her and her family. She moved away from the NYHA apartment and built her dream home to create a place to enjoy her grandchildren.
“I don’t want to be relevant anymore,” Snipes-Garner told the outlet in 2018. “I just want to live my life, raise my grandchildren, and let them see something different than New York City projects and shootings.”
Snipes-Garner lived peacefully in an undisclosed location. “I still have a lot of life to live. I still have a lot of love to give to my children, to my grandchildren, to my mom,” she told the Daily News. “I’ll never be completely happy, but I can be content.”
No funeral arrangements have been announced.
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