Rochester Police Locust Club President Mike Mazzeo called for Mayor Lovely Warren to resign amid the city’s handling of the death of Daniel Prude.
Warren suspended all officers involved in the March death of Prude earlier in September. Her decision came one day after body camera footage of the incident was released by Prude’s family as they prepared for a civil lawsuit.
Mazzeo said the state of the police department is disturbing and that leadership is to blame, according to WROC.
“When you have command staff that’s had enough, it’s usually from the bottom up that people are getting frustrated,” Mazzeo said. “We see that from retirements, and people seeing other departments. When you see it from top down, that’s really disturbing. There’s no assurance that things will be OK.”
Mazzeo added that the response toward officers from the public and elected officials regarding Prude’s death has also frustrated him.
“City council members are calling our people murderers,” Mazzeo said. “They don’t have knowledge or experience. I can’t recall any councilmen reaching out to me to say, ‘What can we do to help?’ What they have done is shut the door in our face, refuse to hear our concerns, or hear from the people who do the job. On how to get to a better place, they’re on for some other agenda, not to serve the city or the people who elected them.”
Warren faced backlash for not taking action or speaking out sooner, claiming that she would have suspended the officers months ago but was under the advice of legal counsel to wait.
Warren also referred to Executive Order 147 as her reasoning for not bringing up the issue sooner. The order, signed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, stipulates that police-involved deaths will be investigated by the state’s attorney general and not the city government.
This week, it was also announced that the entire Rochester command staff of the city’s police department resigned.
Police Chief La’Ron Singletary said in a statement the events that unfolded from the city were an “attempt to destroy my character and integrity.”
“The members of the Rochester Police Department and the Greater Rochester Community know my reputation and know what I stand for,” Singletary said. “The mischaracterization and the politicization of the actions that I took after being informed of Mr. Prude’s death is not based on facts, and is not what I stand for.”
On March 23, Joe Prude, the brother of Daniel Prude, called the police because his brother was having a mental health episode.
When police found Daniel, he was naked. The officers directed him to get on the ground and put his hands behind his back. At one point, an officer put a spit sock over Prude’s head to prevent him from spitting or biting.
A video appears to show Prude attempting to get up, and then, officers moved in to hold him down. A few minutes later, officers gave Prude chest compressions. When he was loaded in the ambulance, he was nonresponsive. Prude died a few days later.
Public backlash occurred as to why the incident did not come to light earlier. Singletary denied that there was any kind of cover-up at play.
