NEW YORK — Rochester, N.Y., will move crisis intervention out of the police force, Mayor Lovely Warren announced Sunday as protests raged over the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man with mental health issues who died after police restrained him, covered his head with a hood and shoved his face into the pavement for two minutes.
Mr. Prude suffocated in March after cops covered his head with a “spit hood,” designed to protect officers, and restrained him. A video was released last week.
The city’s Department of Youth and Recreation Services will take over crisis intervention services, Ms. Warren said in a news conference Sunday.
“We had a human being in a need of help, in need of compassion. In that moment, we had an opportunity to protect him, to keep him warm, to bring him to safety, to begin the process of healing him and lifting him up,” Ms. Warren said, according to NBC News. “We have to own the fact that, in the moment, we did not do that.”
Ms. Warren had already suspended all seven of the officers involved in Mr. Prude’s death the day after the family released the bodycam footage of his arrest.
The police union said the cops were adhering to their training when they placed the spit hood over Mr. Prude’s head and then restrained him by shoving his face into the pavement and holding it there for two minutes.
He was taken off life support a few days later.
Police had discovered Mr. Prude sitting naked in the middle of the street, and his family said he suffered from mental health issues. At first calm, he later grew agitated, which prompted the restraints. Police also said Mr. Prude had told them he had COVID-19, which is why they used the spit hood, according to NBC News.
While critics have said the city kept quiet until the video became public and there was an outcry, state Attorney General Letitia James said Saturday there will be a grand jury investigation.
At the news conference Sunday, Ms. Warren and Rochester’s police chief put up a united front, saying they have no intention of resigning amid protests over Mr. Prude’s death.
"For everything that we've seen this year, it is clear to me that there is more work to be done, and I am committed to doing what's necessary," Ms. Warren said. "And I know the chief is committed to doing what's necessary, to better serve our citizens and our community. That was the job I was elected to do; that was the job that he took an oath to serve."
Chief La’Ron Singletary told reporters that while there was a rumor he might resign, he said he has no intention of doing so and hasn't been asked by the mayor to do so.
CNN contributed.
First Published: September 6, 2020, 10:39 p.m.
