On the night that a grand jury declined to indict a policeman in the death of Eric Garner — an unarmed black man whose final gasps of "I can't breathe" were captured on video — Mayor Bill de Blasio appealed for calm from the pulpit of a Staten Island church.
Seven months later, De Blasio appeared at the same church to comfort Garner's family as the city marked the anniversary of his death.
"Eric Garner did not die in vain," De Blasio said, saying that the fatal confrontation on July 17, 2014, had forced change. "That will make us a more just city," he said.