Daniel Prude death: Video, autopsy could decide if police are charged
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Only days ago, the homicide of Daniel Prude became public.
The news sparked anger. It sparked peaceful protests mixed with scattered vandalism. It sparked finger-pointing among public officials.
While the protests and public dialogue may lead to reforms, the video of Prude' s restraint and the subsequent autopsy likely will be the centerpiece of decisions about whether police acted criminally with his death.
And there is much in the video and the autopsy, even with its granular medical detail, that will surely be questioned and challenged Among the questions: •Did the police use restraint techniques that were accepted within law enforcement circles, or instead was it pressure of the sort known to be dangerous and even deadly for mentally troubled or drugusing individuals held in a prone position?
• Does the use of the term “excited delirium” — both by emergency workers who responded to the scene Jefferson Avenue, where police constrained Prude, and again in the autopsy — stand as a rationale for the police restraint? Or is “excited delirium” a term that lacks medical foundation, used as an explanation and excuse for the deaths of civilians at the hands of police?
• Was Prude's erratic behavior — he was naked and r anting, while not acting violently — clear proof that mental health professionals should have been summoned immediately? Or, instead, did police think he was too medically and mentally fragile for such an intervention, and medical workers needed to be the first to be called?
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network, spoke to current and retired medical examiners and pathologists, lawyers, mental health experts, former police officers, and former city officials for insight into these questions. Many spoke on the record, while some chose not to do so.
Even some of those often hesitant to question police actions acknowledge that they are disturbed by the public revelations thus far.
“This is the worst video I have ever seen,” said Linda Kingsley, who served as Rochester Corporation Counsel for 12 years and now teaches local and state government l aw at the Albany Law School.
“The basic concept of the law and training of every police department in this country is you only use the necessary force and you deescalate when possible,” she said.
Was restraint needed?
When police encountered Daniel Prude, 41, in the early morning hours of March 23, he was naked and wandering Jefferson Avenue.
Earlier, his brother tried to have him admitted to Strong Memorial Hospital for mental health purposes, but he was not held overnight. The hospital has said it acted properly; Prude's brother, Joe, has questioned why he was not kept there.
Videos show Prude largely complying with police as he is handcuffed, and he lies and sits on the street, continuing to rant, often incoherently. He also is bleeding from apparently breaking a window or windows on the street.
At some point, Prudesaid he had coronavirus; police later covered his head with a hood, commonly known as a “spit hood,” to protect officers should he spit toward them.
At one point, awaiting medical workers, at least three officers physically restrain him, pinning him to the ground. The autopsy clearly attributes Prude's death a week later to the loss of oxygen he suffered; the death was ruled a homicide.
“You can see in that video his voice changes, his breathing change ... and they still don't get off him,” Kingsley said.
There is a wealth of research showing the hazards of restraining individuals in a prone position who may be undergoing physical or drug-induced trauma.
Prude also had the hallucinogen phencyclidine, or PCP, in his system. PCP can bring on violent responses, but Prude did not display any hint of physical aggression in the video.
While handcuffed, he asked for a gun repeatedly. He also asked for mace, gloves, $70 and an undefined “it.”
“When asphyxia is put down as a cause of death, it means that the body was deprived of oxygen, and that could cause unconsciousness and death,” said Dr. Homer Venters, a physician, epidemiologist and the former chief medical officer of the New York City Correctional Health Services. “We have decades of evidence that physical restraint and use of physical force can cause asphyxia and deaths from asphyxia.
“One of the things I've seen in cases that I investigated is that officers may engage with somebody who doesn't follow their command … and at some point the (police) response is a response that should be reserved for a real safety threat to their lives or the lives of another person.”