New York Attorney General Letitia James says she did not get the result she sought from her investigation into the death of Daniel Prude. There will be no charges filed in his death against the officers who interacted with him before he fell unconscious, and later died.
But James says the commitment she made to the family of Daniel Prude and the Rochester Community to ensure justice in his death has been met. She says she presented the strongest case she had and sought indictments against the officers, but the grand jury did not agree. The grand jury decided not to indict any police officer on charges related to Daniel Prude’s death. James says she presented an extensive case and sought a different outcome, and she knows the Prude Family and groups supporting them will be disappointed.
James says she will now attempt to amend New York’s Use of Force law to ensure officers only use lethal force as a last resort, first exhausting all other non-lethal means. She says those laws will be based on actual criteria, not left open to the officers’ judgement. And she says there will be rigorous retraining of police officers statewide to ensure all understand and act on those standards. Officers who don’t comply will lose their certification so they can’t move to another department.
James also called for grand jury secrecy rules to be relaxed so the public may know what transpires behind closed doors. She says the secrecy laws are archaic and no longer serve any useful purpose.
The attorney general released a comprehensive report on the Prude investigation with a complete timeline of the incident. She says it shows a man in the throes of a mental health crisis who was crying out for help, recognized by medical experts as “excited delerium,” which puts individuals at greater risk of death. Yet she says the officers who responded were unfamilar with Prude’s condition and situation and reacted inappropriately. James says all first responders must be trained to recognize the symptoms and deal with it as a serious medical emergency.
James says the state should also review police use of “spit hoods” such as was placed on Prude’s head, adding to his stress and agitation. James says it did not directly contribute to Prude’s death.
Prude was running naked on Jefferson Avenue in March of 2020 when police found him. They placed him on the pavement, handcuffed him and restrained him with the spit hood on his head. During that encounter he stopped breathing, and he died a week later in the hospital. Police and City Officials kept the death under cover for weeks, greatly angering Black Lives Matter and related groups once the news broke.