NEW YORK (AP) – An overflow crowd packed a church on Wednesday night for the funeral of a man who died in police custody after an officer placed him in an apparent chokehold.
Eric Garner’s relatives stopped in front of his open casket, some weeping and wailing. A preacher opened the service at Brooklyn’s Bethel Baptist Church with a mix of solemn prayer and an organ-backed gospel medley.
Garner, who had asthma, died last week on Staten Island. An amateur video shows a plainclothes police officer placing him in what appears be a chokehold. Garner can be heard gasping, “I can’t breathe!”
At the church, the program depicted Garner as an angel and included a collage of photographs from his life and death, including one of a sign echoing what he told officers before he died: “This Stops Today.”
Pastor Sarah Taylor sang about God’s power and presence. Everything that happens in life is part of God’s plan, she said, even Garner’s death at age 43.