CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- More than five months after a Chicago man died at the hands of police in Rochester, New York, his family is calling for the officers involved to be fired and to be criminally charged.
Daniel Prude's brother, Joe Prude, had called Rochester police back in March, because he was concerned about his brother's mental health condition.
Daniel Prude had been running around naked outside in the snow in freezing temperatures.
Police body camera video was released Wednesday showing how Rochester police handled the call, which led to Daniel Prude being pronounced dead a few days later. The video shows police holding Prude down, and putting what's called a spit hood over Prude's head, because he was spitting while police tried to gain control over him. Prude was held down for several minutes, until he stopped breathing. Police said they did not realize he was not breathing until paramedics arrived.
Daniel Prude died March 30 after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police in Rochester. A medical examiner concluded that Prude's death was a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.” The report lists excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, as contributing factors.
His death received no public attention until Wednesday, when his family held a news conference and released police body camera video and written reports they obtained through a public records request.
“I placed a phone call for my brother to get help. Not for my brother to get lynched,” Prude’s brother, Joe Prude, said at a news conference. “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?"
Prude was from Chicago and his family said he was living in an apartment building in in Auburn Gresham. He had just arrived in Rochester for a visit with his brother before this incident with Rochester police.
Robert Hoger is a protester who was out Wednesday night.
"When I saw the video, I was very, very, very upset and all I saw was excused from elected leaders - the mayor, the police chief," he said.
Rochester's mayor called the video "disturbing," and said the New York Attorney General's Office has been investigating the incident since April.
“The video is very disturbing,” said Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren. “I’m not going to deny that.”
Daniel Prude's brother wants the police officers involved to be fired and criminally charged.
The fatal encounter happened two months before the death of George Floyd in Minnesota prompted nationwide demonstrations. Floyd died when an officer put his knee on his neck for several minutes during an arrest.
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