Rochester: Police suspended after death of Daniel Prude
September 4, 2020
The suspensions took place a day after footage surfaced of a Black man suffocating with a hood over his head. He died after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Roth and Roth/Rochester Police
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Seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in March in Rochester, New York, were suspended on Thursday by the city's mayor.
Prude, 41, was running down a street naked when police officers apprehended him. The officers put a hood over his head and pressed his head into the pavement for nearly two minutes — a reported effort to stop him spitting. He was then taken to hospital, and his family took him off life support seven days later, on March 30.
The incident received no public attention at the time.
According to the Monroe County medical examiner, his death was a homicide caused by "complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.”
"Mr. Daniel Prude was failed by the police department, our mental health care system, our society and he was failed by me," said Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, the first Black woman to serve as a mayor of the city. "We cannot continue to fail Black lives in this way."
At a press conference on Wednesday, Prude's family released body camera video footage that they obtained via a public records request. It detailed Prude's encounter with the police, just hours after he had been taken to a local hospital for a mental health evaluation. Soon after returning home, he ran into the street, taking off his clothes.
"I didn't know what was the situation, why he was going through what he was going through that night, but I know he didn't deserve to be killed by the police," said Letoria Moore, Prude's aunt.
#BlackLivesMatter: Key figures in the US civil rights movement
The body of late civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis will lie in state at the US Capitol. But who, exactly, was Lewis? And which other figures played a divisive role in the US civil rights movement?
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
'Necessary trouble'
The image of civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis, who died on July 17, is projected onto the statue of Confederate Robert Lee in Richmond, Virginia. A champion of non-violent protest, he attended the 1963 March on Washington and played a key role in abolishing racial segregation. He famously declared: "Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Helber
'A voteless people is a hopeless people'
Amelia Boynton Robinson was a civil rights pioneer who fought for voting rights for African Americans. She helped organize a 5-day civil rights march from the city of Selma to Montgomery in Alabama in March 1965. During the protest, Robinson and others were brutally beaten by state police. Images of what became known as Bloody Sunday went around the world.
Image: Getty Images/S. Lovekin
'The right man and the right place'
Thurgood Marshall, pictured here in 1957, was the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court. Announcing his pick, US President Lyndon B. Johnson declared it was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Marshall, who was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, successfully fought against the racial segregation of US schools and universities.
Rosa Parks made history, when on December 1, 1955, she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her subsequent arrest sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King. The 385 days of protest proved effective when on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling declaring segregated busses unconstitutional in Alabama and Montgomery.
Image: picture alliance/Everett Collection
'I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land'
Martin Luther King at Memphis' Lorraine Motel, on the day of his killing on April 4, 1968. One day earlier, King famously said: "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land." Also pictured (to King's left): Civil rights activist Hosea Williams and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson, to his right, Ralph Abernathy.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Civil Rights Ambassador Young
Andrew Jackson Young was in Memphis, Tennessee, on the day of Martin Luther King’s murder. The politician, civil rights leader, and clergyman had joined King in leading the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1967, President-elect Jimmy Carter nominated Young as the US ambassador to the United Nations. In 1981, he was elected mayor of Atlanta.
Image: Getty Images/D. Oulds
'We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us'
Malcolm Little, better known as Malcolm X (left), rejected Martin Luther King’s notion of non-violent protest. He was portrayed by actor Denzel Washington (right) in Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic "Malcolm X." Once the African American leader of Nation of Islam, he later abandoned the organization, becoming one of its most fervent critics. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.
'My faith in the Constitution is whole'
Barbara Jordan was the first woman and the first African American keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention. In 1974, the attorney, legislator, and educator declared in the House of Representatives that "my faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total."
Image: Getty Images/Keystone/Hulton Archive
A jazz and civil rights icon
Ella Fitzgerald, born in a New York suburb in 1917, was not only a jazz but also a civil rights icon. Fitzgerald, who won 13 Grammys and sold some 40 million records, always insisted musicians touring with her be treated equally, regardless of their skin color. She was the first African American woman to perform at Los Angeles’ Mocambo night club after actress Marilyn Monroe publicly backed her.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Strong, black women
Novelist Alice Walker became involved in the US civil rights movement in the 1960s. She was just 17 when she joined the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Walker’s novels feature strong, black women. And her work The Color Purple won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983.
Image: Getty Images/H. Brace
An outspoken activist
Baptist minister Al Sharpton speaking at George Floyd’s funeral service. In 2004, Sharpton was a Democratic candidate for the presidential race. Two years later, in 2006, he led a protest march in honor of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old African American who had been shot dead by police. Al Sharpton is an outspoken and at times controversial activist.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Gonzalez
Kings of hope
US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama visited a Washington homeless shelter in January 2017, where they helped finish a mural of Martin Luther King. Obama was the first-ever African American to be elected president of the United States.
Image: Imago/Zuma Press
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Rochester police chief La'Ron Singletary also acknowledged anger over the death. However, he maintained that there was no "cover-up" in delaying the release of the video.
Protesters gathered outside Rochester's police headquarters on Wednesday, demanding that the officers involved be prosecuted on murder charges. More protests are planned across the state.
Prude died nearly two months before the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked ongoing protests against racism and police brutality across the United States.
March on Washington — in pictures
Thousands of people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., where Martin Luther King Jr. had delivered the historic "I have a dream" speech 57 years ago.
Image: DW/C. Bleiker
March to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
People gathered from across the country to commemorate the anniversary of the March on Washington. Crowds flooded the National Mall for a mass march marking the anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr's historic "I have a dream" speech on August 28, 1963.
Image: Picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Walsh
Art depicting George Floyd
Incidents of police brutality against Black people and racial injustice was a recurring theme during the march. Friday's demonstration was dubbed "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks," in reference to George Floyd, who suffocated beneath the knee of a white officer in Minneapolis in May, igniting the most widespread civil unrest in the country in decades.
Image: Reuters/L. Millis
Huge crowds
Around 200,000 people attended the event. Alongside Martin Luther King III, the son of the legendary civil rights activist, speakers included Al Sharpton and Democrat candidate for vice president, Kamala Harris.
Image: Picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Walsh
'We remain awake'
In his speech, Martin Luther King III said, "There is a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom."
Image: REUTERS
Al Sharpton addresses the crowd
"We didn't just come out here to have a show. Demonstration without legislation will not lead to change," said Reverend Al Sharpton while addressing the crowds.
Image: Reuters/T. Brenner
Coronavirus precautions
Thousands of marchers, among them many families with children, streamed towards the event from dawn, with COVID-19 masks mandatory. But planned temperature checks were abandoned due to long queues.