“Daniel Proud was in a state of mental health crisis and all he needed was compassion, care and the help of trained professionals. Sadly, he didn’t get anything out of it,” James said in a statement. “We conclude that there is enough evidence to represent the grand jury in the case surrounding Mr. Prude’s death, and we have presented the most comprehensive case possible.
“While I know the Prude family, the Rochester community and communities across the country will be properly devastated and disappointed, we must respect this decision,” James said.
In a statement Tuesday evening, James said her motion to allow the judge’s grand jury minutes for the acquittal was approved.
“This is a crucial step in influencing change that is sorely needed,” he said.
James had previously said that the law on lethal force “created a system that failed Mr. Prude and many others before him.”
“Not only the Rochester Police Department, but our entire criminal justice system needs serious reform,” said the attorney general, who began investigating the case in April.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanusi, representing Prude’s family, said they were deeply disappointed that authorities would not face criminal charges of murdering Daniel Prude during which there was a mental health crisis as she lived naked in the cold streets. Spit hood they put on his head. “
The tragedy could have been avoided if the officers had been properly trained but if basic human courtesy and common sense had been used to treat Mr. Prude with compassion and get him the medical help he deserved, the attorneys said in a statement. “We will advocate for justice in the civil courts, while also demanding federal police reform to end these ongoing tragedies against black citizens once and for all.”
In a statement, U.S. The Justice Department said: “We intend to review the comprehensive report issued by the New York State Attorney General as well as any other related material, and determine whether any further federal response is confirmed.”
The attorney has urged the city to push for reform, not punishment
Mayor Lovely Warren said the decision was “difficult for many of us to understand” but that the city would make sure Prude’s death was not in vain.
“Today’s findings will not undo the damage that Mr. Pruden has brought back to his loved ones. And, we extend our full prayers and condolences to his sons and their families,” Warren said in a statement.
Vernon urged the community to come together behind the reforms being implemented in the police department.
The Rochester Police Los Angeles Club, which represents officers, declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
CNN has sought the comments of lawyers for officers in the case.
Matthew Rich, who represented several of the officers suspended last year, said the decision was “a long-term one.”
“We are looking forward to it, and we are not surprised,” he said of the decision. “We are glad that the grand jury has made the right decision, but the community will not find itself and end the situation.”
Attorney James Nobles, who represents another officer, said the city should take a policy change within the department rather than punish individual officers.
The AG pushes for changes in the law on the use of force and other amendments
James said he would push for changes and other amendments to the state’s consumption pressure law, including mandatory training on dislocation techniques and control of mental health and medical emergencies.
“The criminal justice system has frustrated efforts to hold law enforcement officials accountable for the unjust killing of African Americans,” James said. “And in the circumstances that bind these cases there is the tragic loss of death in which death was averted … and history has unfortunately repeated itself again in the case of Daniel Prude.”
The attorney general said she planned to meet with Prude’s brother.
Police dash and body camera footage, which was made public months after the incident, showed officers handcuffing a naked Prud and showing off his head with a “spit sock” when he claimed to have coronavirus and was spitting. Is.
Officers grabbed him and pushed him to the ground in a dangerous condition, according to the video, which also showed officers kneeling on Prude.
The EMTs came later and started compressing the chest, the video showed. Prod was placed on the gurney and in the ambulance.
When Prude arrived at the hospital, he was brain dead, according to his brother. He died a week later.
Seven police officers involved in the arrest were suspended. The police union has urged the officers to abide by their training and protocol.
Prude, 1, was having a mental health incident on March 23 when his brother Joe called the Rochester Police Department for help, his family told reporters.
A medical examiner in Manuro County ruled in Prude’s death, according to a copy of an autopsy report obtained by lawyers for her family. The report outlines the complications of instability in the adjustment of physical restraint as a finding. The report also cites excitatory delirium and acute PCP intoxication as the causes of death.
The death also raised questions about how the police respond to cases involving people involved in a mental health crisis. Police are always the first to respond to reports that someone is misbehaving, and they use police tactics or force in their response.
In September, Rochester City Council granted the New York City-based law firm the right to conduct an independent investigation into the city’s case – specifically the internal cover-up, and how it kept people informed of Prude’s death. City in western New York.
In a police incident report published by the police, in several edits, some Prosec, Prude’s name is written in the space named “Victim”. Prud’s name is engraved in red, next to a large, handwritten note: “Make him suspicious.”
Vernon pushed the police chief before retiring and suspended two other city employees.
Prude’s sister filed a lawsuit against the former police chief, 13 officers and the city in federal court in September, partly covering the death department.
The former police chief, L’Aron Singlettree, said earlier this month that when he first saw the body-camera video of the incident, he did not see any “obscure” or criminal behavior by police officers. He testified in a virtual testimony to an independent investigator.
Update: Previous version This article misspells the name of New York Attorney General Letia James.
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