A well-known figure and voice against police brutality in New York has died.
The advocacy group Justice Committee and friends of Iris Baez say she passed away on Thursday, Sept. 10 at age 80.
Baez became a powerful voice against police misconduct in the wake of her son’s death in 1994. Anthony Baez was put in a chokehold by then-NYPD Officer Francis Livoti in the Bronx.
It happened after the man’s football hit a police car on the block where the Baez family lived, sparking a confrontation between the family and officers.
For more than three decades, Iris Baez was considered one of the mothers of the movement, speaking out against police misconduct.
She died in Florida, where she lived for many years after a battle with cancer.