Daniel Prude , 41, was visiting his brother Joe inRochester in March when he experienced a mental health crisis.- When Daniel left the house unexpectedly, Joe called 911 to help find him.
- Officers found Joe naked in the street and put a "spit hood" over his head until he fell unconscious. He died seven days later.
- Joe Prude said in an NPR interview that he didn't call the
police "to come help my brother die."
When Joe Prude called 911 on March 23, he was hoping that officers could get help for his brother, who had been struggling with mental health issues.
Police showed up and found Daniel stripped naked in the below-freezing streets of Rochester, New York. During their encounter, Daniel had complied with their orders to lie on the ground and put his hands behind his back, according to police video released to his family.
Officers were told Daniel claimed he had the coronavirus, so they put a "spit hood" over his head, which agitated him, and held his face to the pavement for two minutes until he fell unconscious. He died seven days later.
"I didn't call them to come help my brother die," Joe Prude told NPR's Rachel Martin this week. "I called them to come help me get my brother some help."
Daniel Prude, of Chicago, died months before George Floyd's Memorial Day killing sparked international unrest and anti-racism protests.
It wasn't until two months after his death that Prude's family learned that his death had been declared a homicide, Joe Prude told NPR.
Monroe County Medical Examiner Dr. Nadia Granger ruled Prude's death was caused by "complications of asphyxia" while physically restrained, according to the autopsy report viewed by the Democrat & Chronicle.
The medical examiner's report also noted that contributing factors included acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, the Associated Press reported.
'He was a good dude all the way around,' Joe Prude said of his brother Daniel
Joe Prude told NPR that his brother "Danny" was a generous man and good Samaritan.
In March, he became worried about Daniel, who had a history with mental illness and was struggling to deal with the loss of his mother and a brother, The AP reported.
When he visited Joe's home in Rochester, he wasn't acting like himself. Joe Prude sent Daniel to a hospital to get a mental evaluation, but he was released hours later without medication, he told NPR.
When Daniel got back to Joe Prude's home, they spent some time "laughing and reminiscing about the old days." Joe left the room for a minute and when he returned, Daniel was gone, he told NPR.
Not knowing where Daniel could have gone, and feeling concerned over his mental wellbeing, he called 911.
"For a person like that who you love so much to just disappear and thin out, its like 'Wow, how did I lose sight of him that quickly?'" Joe Prude told NPR.
When police arrived at Joe Prude's house to ask him more about his brother, he told them that Daniel was only a threat to himself.
"He ain't no threat to no one else and don't y'all kill my brother," Joe Prude told NPR he told police.
The video of the police encounter with Daniel Prude, which was provided to the Democrat & Chronicle by attorneys for Prude's family, shows officers ordering Prude, who was unclothed, to the ground and have him put his hands behind his back while one aimed a taser at him.
He complied.
Then one officer placed the white bag over his head, which agitated him. An officer then pressed the man's covered head into the pavement for two minutes.
Prude vomited in the hood and then fell unconscious, NPR reported. He died a week later at the hospital.
His family is now calling for justice.
"Everything that they did, they didn't have to do," Joe Prude told NPR. "That excessive force they used on him, to push a knee in his back, holding his legs, that wasn't called for."
On Thursday, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren suspended seven officers involved in the death of Daniel Prude.
"They treated my brother like he was an animal in the street," Joe Prude said. "I really would love to see them stand in front of a judge and have their prosecution just like they prosecuted my brother. They [were] the judge and the jury, and the executioner."
Listen to Joe Prude's interview with NPR »»
- Read more:
- Police in Rochester put a 'spit hood' over the head of a Black man and pressed his head into the ground for 2 minutes. He died a week later.
- 'Spit hoods' — like the bag that suffocated Daniel Prude in Rochester, NY — have been used by police for years. They've been linked to several in-custody deaths.
- The right-wing group Patriot Prayer, associated with a man killed in the Portland protests, has a history of provoking left-wing groups: 'This was just a matter of time'
- Kenosha sheriff took heat in 2018 after a no-mercy rant about a group of shoplifters who were Black: 'We need to build warehouses to put these people into it and lock them away the rest of their lives.'