Mayor suspends 7 officers in man’s suffocation death
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Seven police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude in Rochester, N.Y., were suspended Thursday by the city’s mayor, who said she was misled for months about the circumstances of the fatal encounter.
Prude, 41, who was Black, died when he was taken off life support March 30. That was seven days after officers who encountered him running naked through the street put a hood over his head to stop him from spitting, then held him down for about two minutes until he stopped breathing.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren announced the suspensions at a news conference amid outrage that city officials had previously kept quiet about Prude’s death.
While denying a coverup, Warren acknowledged that Prude “was failed by the police department, our mental health care system, our society, and he was failed by me.”
Hours after the announcement, a crowd of protesters unswayed by the suspensions demonstrated late into the night outside Rochester’s police headquarters. Officers doused some protesters with a chemical spray and repeatedly fired an irritant into the crowd to drive activists away from metal barricades ringing the building. Protesters protected themselves with umbrellas, dashed for cover, then returned to be fired on again.
Journalists were among those hit by pellets during the confrontation, which came on the second day of peaceful demonstrations over Prude’s death.
The mayor said she only became aware that Prude’s death involved the use of force on Aug. 4. Initially, she said, Police Chief La’Ron Singletary portrayed it as a drug overdose, which is “entirely different” than what Warren said she witnessed in body camera video. The mayor said she told the chief she was “deeply, personally and professionally disappointed” in his failure to accurately inform her what happened to Prude.
Warren said the seven officers would still be paid because of contract rules and that she was taking the action against the advice of attorneys.
“I understand that the union may sue the city for this. They shall feel free to do so,” she said.
Approached at a community event, Singletary declined to comment but said he would speak later.
Messages left with the union representing Rochester police officers were not returned.