A New York state grand jury declined to issue charges against the police officers who responded to a domestic disturbance call that resulted in them handcuffing and putting a hood over the head of Daniel Prude, a mentally disturbed Black man who died of asphyxiation.
As NPR reports, the grand jury did not find cause to charge the Rochester police officers involved in the March 2020 encounter, instigated when the family called police because they feared the 41-year-old Prude might harm himself.
Video of the encounter was published by the local newspaper in September 2020, prompting public demonstrations in Rochester and around the country as a continuation of the Black Lives Matter social movement from early summer.
The police placed a hood, known as a spit hood, over Prude’s head to prevent him from spitting on officers. The officers then tried to restrain Prude by holding his hands and feet and kneeling on his back.
“The current laws on deadly force have created a system that utterly and abjectly failed Mr. Prude and so many others before him,” New York Attorney General Leticia James said in a statement about the grand jury decision. “Serious reform is needed, not only at the Rochester Police Department, but to our criminal justice system as a whole.”