Family members and other supporters of the late Eric Garner gathered on Staten Island on Saturday to honor him with renaming a street.
An “Eric Garner Way” sign was unveiled during a ceremony at the corner of Bay Street and Victory Boulevard on the Island’s north shore — the site where Garner, 43, died in 2014 after being put in an illegal chokehold by an NYPD officer while being arrested on suspicion of illegally selling loose cigarettes.
Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, thanked the roughly 100 who attended while recalling the groundswell of support she she said experienced following her son’s death.
“I remember when my son was first murdered,” she said. “People I didn’t know — but they knew him — they stood in this very street all night and all day.”
“Eric Garner Way” is at the corner of Bay Street and Victory Boulevard on Staten Island. J.C.Rice
Dozens from the community came out to see the unveiling of the street name. J.C.Rice
July 17 marks eight years since Garner’s death. J.C.RicePols attending the event included Comptroller Brad Lander and embattled, soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Lander said he wants the renamed street corner — which was approved by the City Council last year — to be about “remember[ing] Eric’s life, not just his death.”
