Daniel Prude’s grand jury verdict leads to protests in Rochester after decision not to charge officers

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Rochester, New York on Tuesday night to protest news that a grand jury had decided not to indict seven officers involved in the March 2020 arrest of Daniel Prude, whose death has made headlines after video showed he was handcuffed naked. and sat in the street while his head was covered with a spit hood.

Protesters gathered around 7:30 p.m. in the area where Prude, a 41-year-old black man, was confronted and handcuffed by police just under a year earlier, the Democrat & Chronicle reported. As the night wore on, protesters reportedly chanted and defied police order to avoid the area of ​​Child Street and Maple Street, where there is a police station.

Photos posted on social media show protesters – some wearing helmets and umbrellas – climbed barriers erected along Child Street and were greeted by police.

As the protest continued, police announced in a second tweet of the night that the RPD “supports the rights of our citizens to demonstrate peacefully as permitted by the US Constitution.”

NEW YORK GRAND JURY VOTES NOT TO INDICATE POLICE OFFICERS FOR THE DEATH OF DANIEL PRUDE

The tweet added: “We ask anyone who wishes to demonstrate peacefully to refrain from participating or being involved with anyone who acts or commits acts of violence.”

Protesters reportedly advanced, marching against the tide along Interstate 490, and headed for the Rochester Public Safety building, where protesters frequently gathered – sometimes wearing sparse clothing to mimic the circumstances of the arrest of Prude – during the summer months until the fall.

Protesters began to jump over metal barricades set up in front of the building, helping each other climb as they made their way to the front doors.

THE DANIEL PRUDE AFFAIR: ROCHESTER POLICE LAWYERS DEFEND THE GENDARMERIE ACTIONS LEADING TO DEATH

The unrest ended around 11:45 p.m., the report said. The protesters were largely nonviolent and police made no arrests overnight, according to the Democrat & Chronicle.

Earlier Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James broke news that a grand jury had refused to indict the six officers and a sergeant for their handling of the case last March.

Prude died just days after meeting police, and police reportedly described his death as a drug overdose. But police body camera video that was revealed in September showed Prude appeared to be suffering from a mental episode, possibly caused by drugs.

The footage further showed Prude naked and sitting in the street, wearing a mesh covering, known as a spit hood, on her head. During the interaction, one officer can be seen pressing his knee against Prude’s back as another pushes his face onto the sidewalk. They reportedly held him down for about two minutes, but later realized he had no pulse and began CPR.

He died on March 30. A medical examiner concluded that Daniel Prude’s death was a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxiation in the context of physical restraint”. The report lists excited delirium and acute phencyclidine poisoning, or PCP, as contributing factors.

James, whose office took over the investigation, said his office had “presented the strongest case possible” to the grand jury, but could not persuade him the police had committed a crime.

“I know the Prude family, the Rochester community and communities across the country will be rightly disappointed with this outcome,” said James, who traveled to Rochester to announce the grand jury decision at a church near where Prude was fatally injured.

She said she was bound to respect the grand jury’s decision, but she also condemned a system that she said had “thwarted efforts to hold law enforcement accountable for the wrongful murder of African Americans. “.

“What ties these cases together is a tragic loss of life under circumstances in which death could have been avoided,” said James, who, like the mayor of Rochester and the city’s current and former police chiefs, is black.

“We recognize the influences of race, from slave codes to Jim Crow, through lynching, the war on crime, the overincarceration of people of color: Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. And now Daniel Prude, “she said.

Lawyers for the seven police officers suspended for Prude’s death said the police strictly followed their training that night, using a restraint technique known as “segmentation.” They claimed that Prude’s use of PCP, which caused irrational behavior, was “the root cause” of his death.

Officers Troy Taladay, Paul Ricotta, Francisco Santiago, Andrew Specksgoor, Josiah Harris and Mark Vaughn, as well as Sgt. Michael Magri, were suspended after Prude’s death became public knowledge. Officers will remain on leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan told The Associated Press.

“The system has failed Daniel Prude again,” Prude family attorney Elliot Shields said of the grand jury decision. “It failed him on March 22 when he was released from the hospital. It let him down on the night of March 23 when the police used lethal force on him. And it let him down again today. ‘hui. “

Shields said Prude’s brother Joe Prude was “sorry”.

Prude was from Chicago and traveled to Rochester on March 22 to visit her brother. According to a previously released internal affairs investigator’s report, Prude was kicked off the train before arriving in Rochester for “his unruly behavior.”

A few hours later, he was taken to hospital before going to his brother’s home. At around 3 a.m. on March 23, he ran out through his brother’s back door.

Prude was handcuffed by police at around 3:20 a.m. after her brother called the police to take him back to the hospital, where he had been hours before.

“Around 3 a.m. Daniel was behaving very oddly again – he ran through my back door wearing only a tank top and long underpants,” Joe Prude wrote in a supporting statement released later. in the mine of documents. “I called the police again so they could find him and take him back to the hospital.”

DANIEL PRUDE VIDEO INITIALLY RETAINED BY ROCHESTER POLICE, DOCUMENTS SHOW

Police tracked down Daniel Prude shortly after he visited a phone store where police believe he “threw a cinder block through the store window before being spotted by a tow truck driver” . Police said the driver of the tow truck described Prude as naked, covered in blood and said he told the driver he had the novel coronavirus.

What happened next – the video that sent shockwaves across upstate New York and across the country – also used unrest between former Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary and Mayor Lovely Warren.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Singletary, who was fired due to the ministry’s response to Daniel Prude’s death, said in December that Warren had pressured him to lie about his handling of the investigation – and claimed he was ousted when ‘he had refused to do so.

That same month, the city’s public integrity office released a report concluding that it had found no ethical loopholes in the way Warren or senior officials responded to Prude’s death.

Rochester was also recently criticized after a video was released showing local agents spraying pepper on a 9-year-old girl.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.