AG starts probe of Rochester police killing of man

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 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 earlier this week, with protesters demanding more accountability for how it happened and legislation to change how authorities respond to mental health emergencies.

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 illequipped 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.”

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.

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