Prude did not announce the incident until Wednesday afternoon at a press conference.
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Daniel Prude suffered from an unspecified mental illness. In March of this year, his brother Joe called the Rochester police for help, as Daniel was walking naked through the city streets at about 3 a.m.
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After arriving at the scene, the police aimed an electric stun gun at the man. The guards ordered Prude to lie down and put his hands behind his back, which the man did immediately. The police then handcuffed him.
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The so-called spit hood that the police were to put on Prude
Photo: Profimedia.cz
After about four minutes, Prude was to try to get up from the ground and spit on the guards, allegedly vomiting. The police therefore put a special bag (so-called spit hood) over his head, which made it harder for the arrested person to breathe.
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“He started vomiting, but now he doesn’t seem to be breathing at all and he’s cold,” one of the officers was to say. They eventually called an ambulance and tried unsuccessfully to provide first aid.
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Prude was officially pronounced dead on March 30, a week after the incident.
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“I called the police to get my brother’s help, not the lynching. You killed a defenseless black man. You killed a brother, a son, an uncle, “Joe Prude told a news conference on Wednesday.
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According to the family, the police intervention lasted approximately 11 minutes. The family provided the video with several shots to CNN, which has not yet released it. The AP agency provided approximately a two-minute video of the entire arrest.
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It took months to get footage
Why did it take the family over five months to publish the whole incident? Her lawyer, Elliot Shields, said the reason was that it took months to find camera shots on police vests.
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New York State Attorney Letitia James called Prude’s death a tragedy and said an investigation had been launched. The three police officers who took part in the arrest remain in the service for the time being.
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The Rochester newspaper Democrat and Chronicle received an autopsy report stating that the cause of death was “complications of asphyxia (suffocation) in reducing physical strength.” According to the report, one of the causes of these complications was also a “strong hallucinogenic drug”.
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In Rochester, several people protesting against racism and police methods took to the streets after a press conference.
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