A makeshift memorial built in the Staten Island, New York at the spot where Eric Garner died at the hands of law enforcement last year, burned down on Monday evening. Preliminary reports suggest a candle started the blaze.
According to the New York Post, the Staten Island memorial caught fire late on Monday, which was also Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Police sources told the paper that a candle was believed to have accidentally fallen and burned down the memorial.
“Evil set my dad’s memorial on fire tonight, but cant erase his legacy,” Erica Garner, the daughter of the late New Yorker, wrote on Twitter. “Rebuild 2morrow.”
Garner, who was 43 years old, died last summer after a New York Police Department Officer placed him in a chokehold. He was attempting to detain the man for allegedly illegally selling cigarettes. His death was amplified one month later when Michael Brown, a black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.