Newly released documents from city officials in Rochester, New York, detailed how the city worked to block information about Daniel Prude’s death from becoming public.
Emails, police reports, and other details from an internal investigation were disclosed on Monday, showing how city officials within the police department and the mayor’s office worked to prevent the body camera footage of Prude’s death from being released to the public out of concern that they would suffer “blowback” from the community.
“We certainly do not want people to misinterpret the officers’ actions and conflate this incident with any recent killings of unarmed Black men by law enforcement nationally,” a deputy told Police Chief La’Ron Singleton while urging him not to release the footage. “That would simply be a false narrative, and could create animosity and potentially violent blowback in this community as a result.”
Singleton told the deputy he “absolutely” agreed, which was one example of many where the department worked to prevent details of Prude’s death from becoming public.
Prude, a 41-year-old black man, died in police custody in March after he was arrested while in the street naked. Prude had told officers that he had coronavirus, which prompted the officers to place a hood over his head to stop him from spitting on them during the arrest. With a hood over his head, officers held him down on the ground until he became unconscious. He died after several days on life support.
Officers attempted to remove themselves from the situation immediately. The police report from the incident shows Prude’s name circled in red alongside a note that stated: “Make him a suspect.” The department told Prude’s family that he had died of an overdose, but the family doubted that information. The autopsy report showed PCP in Prude’s system but listed his cause of death as asphyxia by homicide.
Elliot Shields, an attorney for the Prude family, notified the police department that he was going to be looking into the death on April 3 and filed a public records request for information about the arrest and the body camera footage as part of a wrongful death investigation. On April 21, the New York attorney general’s office announced that they would be investigating the death as well. This investigation proved to be a tool for the department to further block information from being released.
Emails show that when Shields followed up with the city to see why he had not received his information request in May, he was told that the city could not turn over the documents because it would interfere with the attorney general’s investigation. The attorney general’s office has denied that they coordinated with the city in its effort to block the release of information.
In separate emails at the time, police Lt. Michael Perkowski told city attorney Stephanie Prince that he did not want to release the emails because of the recent death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“I am very concerned about releasing this prematurely in light of what is going on in Rochester and around the country,” Perkowski wrote. “I may be overthinking, but would think the chief’s office and the mayor’s office would want a heads-up before this goes out.”
The city agreed to allow Shields to review the body camera footage in private after signing a letter vowing not to make copies of the footage. Shields was finally mailed copies of the body camera footage on Aug. 12, nearly four months after Prude’s death.
Rochester has been rocked by protests and riots since the release of the footage on Sept. 2. Most of the senior members of the police department have resigned. On Tuesday, City Hall was occupied by protesters who vowed not to leave until the officers involved are charged and Mayor Lovely Warren resigns.
