NY grand jury to investigate ‘spit hood’ death of Prude
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — New York’s attorney general 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 of Prude’s death, which has sparked nightly protests and calls for reform. 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.
Protests have been held on the street where Prude was detained.
Advocates for such legislation say Prude’s death and the actions of seven now-suspended Rochester police officers — including one who covered the Black man’s head with a “spit hood” during the March encounter — demonstrate how police are ill-equipped to deal with people suffering mental problems.
Having police respond can be a “recipe for disaster,” The National Alliance on Mental Illness said in a statement Friday.
Prude’s death “is yet another harrowing tragedy, but a story not unfamiliar to us,” the advocacy group said. “People in crisis deserve help, not handcuffs.”
Stanley Martin, an organizer of Free the People Rochester, told reporters: “We do not need violent workers with guns to re
spond to mental health crises.”
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 by his family Wednesday.
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, d e mo n st ra t o r s 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.
Prude’s family has said he appeared to be spiraling into crisis in the hours before police handcuffed him on a street and pinned the naked man face down. In the video, police are also seen covering his head with the white “spit hood,” designed to protect police from bodily fluids.
“You’re trying to kill me!” the 41-year-old man is heard saying. He died days later in what the medical examiner ruled was a homicide.
A police union has de
fended the officers involved in the encounter, saying they were strictly following department training and protocols, including using the mesh hood.
Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon, authorities released additional court documents late Friday detailing the moments before the recent slaying of a right-wing protester.
The documents included shots of security footage that showed the suspect, Michael Forest Reinoehl, ducked into a parking garage and reached toward a pocket or pouch at his waist before emerging to follow the victim, Patriot Prayer supporter Aaron “Jay” Danielson. Danielson was holding bear spray and an expandable baton and had a loaded Glock handgun in a holster at his waist, according to the documents.
The shooting happened moments later and wasn’t captured on security video. Witnesses told police that just before they heard gunshots someone said something like, “wanna go,” which is frequently a challenge to a fight.
Danielson was shot in the chest and died at the scene.