Grand jury to review Black man’s death in N.Y.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — New York’s attorney general on Saturday moved to form a grand jury to investigate the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died after being hooded and held down by Rochester police earlier this year.

“The Prude family and the Rochester community have been through great pain and anguish,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement about Prude’s death, which has sparked nightly protests and calls for change. She said the grand jury would be part of an “exhaustive investigation.”

Prude’s death after his brother called for help for his erratic behavior in March has roiled New York’s third-largest city since video of the encounter was made public last week, with protesters demanding more accountability for how it happened and legislation to change how authorities respond to mental-health emergencies.

Activists have marched nightly in the city of 210,000 on Lake Ontario since police body camera videos of the encounter with Prude were released Wednesday by his family.

Advocates for legislation say Prude’s death and the actions of seven now-suspended Rochester police officers — including one who covered Prude’s head with a “spit hood” during the March encounter — demonstrate how police are ill-equipped to deal with people suffering mental problems.

The hood is designed to protect police from bodily fluids, which authorities view as even more critical to use during the coronavirus pandemic.

A police union has defended the officers involved in the encounter, saying they were strictly following department training and protocols, including using the mesh hood.

Friday night’s protest resulted in 11 arrests, police said. As they had the night before, officers doused activists at police headquarters with a chemical spray to drive them from barricades around the building.

As the night wore on, demonstrators were pushed farther back, as police fired what appeared to be pepper balls. Fireworks were shot off and a bus stop was set on fire.