Community members in Rochester, New York, are calling for charges to be filed against the officers involved in a Black man’s fatal encounter with police after details of the incident were made public on Sept. 2.
Daniel Prude, 41, died a week after an encounter with Rochester police on March 23 that left him brain dead. His brother Joe Prude called the police after he noticed Daniel acting strangely before suddenly bolting out of the back door of the home at about 3 a.m. on a snowy night. Joe said his brother had threatened to harm himself the day before, when he’d already been held at a hospital because of suicidal ideation.
Newly released bodycam video of the encounter obtained by Free the People ROC, a social justice organization, revealed on Wednesday that Prude was complying with officers’ orders during his detainment that was set in motion by his brother’s 911 call.
Officers found Daniel Prude, by then apparently in the grip of a full-blown mental health crisis, walking down the street naked.
As soon as the police vehicle approached him and Officer Mark Vaughn instructed him to get on the ground, Prude laid down in the street and put his hands behind his back.
“Yes sir,” Prude says multiple times as Vaughn gives him commands.
As Prude lies on the ground, the officers standing around laugh at his behavior.
“I saw him like lifting up a garbage can,” Vaughn laughs. “He almost got hit by a car too.”
After Prude sits upright in the roadway, still handcuffed, officers, complaining that Prude was spitting, put a “spit mask” mesh bag over his head. When he protested that he wanted the mask removed they rushed to pin him against the ground, ignoring his cries and holding his head and body down as paramedics arrive.
Officer Troy Talladay used his knee to pin Prude down at one point, and Officer Vaughn uses his entire body weight to push Prude’s face against the cold asphalt.
When an officer asks Prude if he is OK, he does not respond but is left lying face down until officers roll him onto his back and take off the mask and cuffs. A paramedic says Prude does not have a pulse and begins performing CPR.
Prude was transported to a hospital, where a doctor told his family he was most likely brain dead. He died a week later.
Joe Prude believes his brother died in the street before he was even brought to the hospital. “He died there. They just took him to the hospital and put a tube in him,” he said at a news conference Wednesday. “That was cold-blooded murder. … My brother was a loving individual. He was a likeable guy and a damn good brother. He made people laugh. He brought joy to people. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
“I placed a phone call for my brother to get help,” Prude also said on Wednesday. “Not for my brother to get lynched. How did you see him and not directly say, ‘The man is defenseless, buck naked on the ground. He’s cuffed up already. Come on.’ How many more brothers gotta die for society to understand that this needs to stop?”
The medical examiner found that Prude’s cause of death was homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint,” as well as “excited delirium” and acute PCP intoxication.
Prude’s family and members of Free the Roc have called for the officers involved to be fired, but Police Chief La’Ron Singletary said the officers have not been suspended because the investigation needs to “take its course.”
Prude’s family is also calling for the City Council to pass legislation that would prevent officers from responding to mental health crises.
Prude’s family, represented by attorney Elliot Dolby-Shields, wants the officers involved to be prosecuted, and they intend to sue the city of Rochester.
Protesters gathered outside of the Public Safety Building in Rochester on Wednesday following the release of the bodycam footage.
Prude’s death is under investigation by the New York State attorney general’s office, which will decide whether the officers will be prosecuted.
