Protests In Rochester, N.Y., After Bodycam Footage Released Of Daniel Prude’s Death

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A crowd of protesters gathers in Rochester, N.Y., near the site where Daniel Prude was restrained by police officers in March. Prude, a Black man who had run naked through the streets of the western New York city, died of asphyxiation a week later.

Adrian Kraus/AP

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Adrian Kraus/AP

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A makeshift memorial is seen in Rochester, N.Y., near the site where Daniel Prude was restrained by police officers.

Adrian Kraus/AP

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Adrian Kraus/AP

A makeshift memorial is seen in Rochester, N.Y., near the site where Daniel Prude was restrained by police officers.

Adrian Kraus/AP

«I placed the phone call for my brother to get help, not for my brother to get lynched,» said Joe Prude at a press conference yesterday on the steps of City Hall.

Protesters and community leaders charged that police and Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren have attempted to sweep Prude’s death under the rug.

At a second press conference at Rochester’s Public Safety Building where police headquarters is located, Warren said an ongoing investigation by the New York attorney general’s office took the matter out of the city’s hands.

«This is not something in our wheelhouse, in our control at this moment in time,» Warren said. «Had it been, this is something we would have talked about months ago.»

«The rhetoric that this is a cover-up, this is not,» said Rochester Chief of Police La’Ron Singletary. «You know we don’t have a problem holding anyone accountable, but the investigation has to take its course.»

Wednesday’s protest began small at the Monroe County Public Safety Building but gained momentum throughout the day. Mid-afternoon police fired pepper spray and tear gas into a small crowd outside police headquarters.

The protest later moved to where Prude was arrested, and a large block party gradually formed. Organizers say they plan to occupy the space until the officers involved in Prude’s arrest are fired and the city bars police from responding to mental health calls, among other demands.

«We want the larger community to know this is not something that happens in other cities, in other states, it happens right here in Rochester,» said Ashley Gantt, an organizer with local Black Lives Matter group Free the People Roc.

• daniel prude
• rochester n.y.