No charges will be made for the death of New York man Daniel Prude, who was seen on a police camera being nailed to the floor with a spit bag over his head.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday that a grand jury voted not to indict any of the Rochester police officers involved in the incident.
Prude, 41, was restrained by police in March 2020 during a mental health emergency. His death, due to complications from suffocation after the suspension of the life support system, was considered homicide.
“Daniel Prude was going through a mental health crisis and what he needed was compassion, care and help from trained professionals,” said James in a statement. “Tragically, he received none of these things.”
Images from the body camera, released by Prude’s family in September, showed Prude looking unconscious while being pinned to the floor.
The delay in launching the video resulted in the implementation of a new policy by James’ office, according to which images from the body camera will now be released early in the investigation process.
James said on Tuesday that the current lethal force laws in place “created a system that failed Totally and abjectly with Prude and so many others before him”, adding that serious reform is needed in the “criminal justice system as a whole” .
“While I know that the Prude family, the Rochester community and communities across the country will be devastated and disappointed in law, we have to respect that decision,” said James.
After the announcement, hundreds of protesters gathered Tuesday night at the location where Prude met the police last year, according to ABC Rochester’s affiliate WHAM-TV. They marched shouting, “Without justice, without peace.”
In the midst of the protest, the Rochester Police Department called on anyone “who wishes to protest peacefully to refrain from participating or engaging with anyone who acts or commits acts of violence”.
Rochester’s Mayor Lovely Warren said in a statement that the decision is “difficult for many of us to understand”.
“Today’s discoveries will not undo the damage caused or bring Prude back to his loved ones. And we extend our most complete prayers and condolences to his children and family,” said Warren. “There are no words that can comfort a family that has lost their loved one in this tragic way. Our actions going forward will ensure that Daniel Prude’s death was not in vain.”
Lovely echoed James’ insistence that policies and procedures must change to “correct inequalities in the system”.
James’s office released a comprehensive report with detailed descriptions of the events that allegedly took place on March 22 and 23 “to provide maximum transparency to the case,” according to a statement.
More answers about what happened behind closed doors with the grand jury will also be available, as James announced Tuesday night that a judge has granted a motion to release the case.
“This is a critical step in bringing about the much needed change,” she said on Twitter.
Her office will release the case “as soon as the judge authorizes it,” she said.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who represent Crude’s family, said in a joint statement that they are “deeply disappointed” that the officers involved do not face criminal charges.
“This tragedy could have been prevented if the police had been properly trained, but also used basic human decency and common sense to treat Mr. Prude with compassion and get the medical attention he deserved,” said the lawyers. “We will continue to defend justice in civilian courts, while seeking to reform the federal police so that these continuing tragedies against black citizens end once and for all.”
Rochester’s former police chief, La’Ron Singletary, was fired in September amid criticism of the treatment of Prude’s death. Seven officers involved in the incident were also suspended that month and will remain on leave pending an internal investigation, Rochester interim police chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan and the Rochester Police Locust Club, the department’s police union, said in separate statements.
Herriott-Sullivan said she has “a deep and unwavering respect for our judicial system and due process for all people”, but that the department will continue to update its policies and training, from scaling down, duty of intervention and detention practices mental hygiene.
“I want the family and our community to know that I accepted the role of Acting Chief of Police to make real and systemic change, and that is still my goal,” said Herriott-Sullivan. “I am proud of the progress we are making and of the DPO Officers for being open to learning alternative methods and working together towards a common goal of preventing this from happening again.”
Lawyers representing several of the suspended police officers said they are following mandatory training.
“We said from the beginning that our customers have done nothing wrong,” James Nobles, who represents one of the officers, told WHAM on Tuesday. “They followed the procedure, requested training, did what they were asked to do. And you know, 23 citizens in this community heard weeks of evidence and dozens of witnesses and came to the same conclusion.”
“It’s easy to sit and say that they should have been nicer and should have said this, should have done that,” said Matt Rich, who represents four of the officers, to the station. “What they did was, in a crisis and a situation of high stress, they went back to training, which was what was ordered by their superiors.”