“Daniel Prude was in the throes of a mental health crisis and what he needed was compassion, care and help from trained professionals. Tragically, he received none of those things,” James said in a statement. ‘We have come to the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence of the death of Mr. Prude to present the case to a grand jury, and we presented the most comprehensive case possible.
“While I know the Prude family, the Rochester community and communities across the country will rightly be devastated and disappointed, we must respect this decision,” James said.
In a statement Tuesday night, James said a judge granted her request that the court overturn the minutes of the grand jury for release to the public.
“This is a critical step in implementing the change that is so urgently needed,” she said.
James said earlier that deadly violence laws “created a system that Mr. Prude and so many others before him have completely failed. ‘
“Serious reform is needed, not only at the Rochester Police Department, but also in our criminal justice system as a whole,” said the attorney general, who began the investigation in April.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, representing Prude’s family, said they were “deeply disappointed that officers will not face criminal charges for the murder of Daniel Prude during a mental health crisis while naked in the cold” streets with a spittoon that they placed over his head. ‘
‘This tragedy could have been avoided if officers had been properly trained, but also used basic human decency and common sense to help Mr. “Treat Prude with compassion and get the medical attention he deserves,” the lawyers said in a statement. “We will continue to advocate for justice in the civil courts, while also striving for federal police reform so that these ongoing tragedies against black citizens are ended once and for all.”
In a statement, the U.S. Department of Justice said: “We intend to review the comprehensive report issued by the Attorney General of New York, as well as all other relevant material, and will determine whether any further federal response is warranted. is.”
Advocate calls on city to carry out reforms, not punish officials
Mayor Lovely Warren said the ruling is difficult for many of us to understand, but that the city will make sure Prude’s death was not in vain.
“Today’s findings will not undo the damage done, nor will we bring Mr Prude back to his loved ones. And we express our children and his family with the greatest prayer and compassion,” Warren said in a statement. statement said.
Warren urged the community to come together behind reforms being implemented in the police department.
Rochester Police’s locust club, representing officers, declined to comment pending the ongoing investigation.
CNN has asked for comment for attorneys for the officers in the case.
Matthew Rich, representing several officers who were suspended last year, said the decision would come a long time. ‘
“We have been eagerly awaiting this and we are not surprised,” he said of the decision. “We are pleased that the grand jury has made the right decision, but it does not put an end to the situation the community is in.”
Attorney James Nobles, who represents another officer, said the city should seek policy changes within the department rather than punishing individual officers.
AG makes changes in the use of power laws and other reforms
James said she would strive for changes in the use of state laws and other reforms, including mandatory training on decalcification techniques and dealing with mental health and medical emergencies.
“The criminal justice system has frustrated attempts to hold law enforcement officials accountable for the unjustified killing of African Americans,” James said. “And what binds these cases is a tragic loss of life in circumstances in which death could have been avoided … And history has unfortunately repeated itself again in the case of Daniel Prude.”
The attorney general said she plans to meet with Prude’s brother.
Police and body camera footage, released to the public months after the incident, showed officers handcuffing a naked Prude and covering his head with a ‘spit sock’ after he claimed he had the coronavirus and spat .
According to the video, officers held him and pressed him to the ground in the light position, which also shows officers kneeling on Prude.
EMTs later showed up and began performing chest compressions, the video showed. Prude was placed on a gurney and in an ambulance.
When Prude arrived at the hospital, he was brain dead, according to his brother. He passed away a week later.
Seven police officers involved in the arrest were suspended. The police union insisted that the officers follow their training and protocols.
Prude, 41, was in a mental health episode on March 23 when his brother Joe called the Rochester Police Department for help, his family told reporters.
Prude’s death was determined by Monroe County medical examiner to be a homicide, according to a copy of the autopsy report that attorneys obtained for his family. In the report, complications of asphyxia in the institution of physical control are mentioned as a finding. The report also cited excited delirium and acute PCP intoxication as causes of death.
Death has also raised questions about how the police are responding to cases involving people in a mental health crisis. The police are often the first to respond to reports of someone acting irregularly, and they sometimes use political tactics or violence in their response.
Rochester City Council in September authorized a New York City law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the city’s handling of the case – particularly whether there was internal cover-ups and how information about Prude’s death was withheld from the public. is the city in western New York.
In one report of the police incident, under many amendments, some prosaic, Prude’s name appears in the space with the heading “Victim”. Prude’s name is in red circle, next to a large, handwritten note: “Make him a suspect.”
Warren fired the police chief before his retirement and suspended two other city employees.
Prude’s sister filed a lawsuit in federal court in September against the former police chief, 13 officers and the city, and in part claimed the death was a cover-up by the department.
Former police chief La’Ron Singletary said earlier this month that he did not see anything “gruesome” or any criminal activity by police officers when he first looked at the camera’s video of the incident. He testified in a virtual deposition to an independent investigator.
Correction: an earlier version of this article, the name of New York Attorney General Letitia James was misspelled.