The Daily - What Happened to Daniel Prude?

Episode Date: September 8, 2020

This episode contains strong language.In March, Daniel Prude was exhibiting signs of a mental health crisis. His brother called an ambulance in the hopes that Mr. Prude would be hospitalized, but he was sent back home after three hours without a diagnosis.Later, when Mr. Prude ran out of the house barely clothed into the Rochester night, his brother, Joe Prude, again called on the authorities for help, but this time it was to the police.After a struggle with officers, Daniel Prude suffered cardiac distress. It would be days before Joe Prude was able to visit him in the hospital — permitted only so he could decide whether to take his brother off life support — and months before the family would find out what had happened when he was apprehended.Today, we hear from Joe Prude about that night and examine the actions taken by the police during his brother’s arrest, including the official narrative that emerged after his death.Guest: Sarah Maslin Nir, a reporter for The New York Times, who spoke to Daniel Prude’s brother, Joe Prude.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: In the minutes after Mr. Prude’s heart briefly stopped during a struggle with officers, an unofficial police narrative took hold: He had suffered a drug overdose. But the release of body camera footage complicated that version of events.The Monroe County medical examiner ruled Mr. Prude’s death a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.” Seven Rochester police officers have now been suspended.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today. For months, the public was unaware of Daniel Prude's death while in police custody, despite body camera video capturing it, raising questions about a possible cover-up. My colleague, Sarah Neer, reports from Rochester. It's Tuesday, September 8th. Sarah, just to start, what have you learned about Daniel Prude in the time since this video of his arrest was released last week?

The day after this really horrifying video was released, I flew up to Rochester to learn more about the incident and about the person. Oh, man, he's a straight-up comedian. I swear to God, y'all could have met my brother. Y'all be in here laughing and smacking the table like y'all stole something. I ended up meeting with Joe Prude, Daniel Prude's brother, and he told me that Daniel actually isn't from Rochester.

He's from Chicago. Him and his brother used to argue all the time. Putting each other in the headlocks. Daniel had been living for many years where he was born and raised in Chicago with his sister, Tamashay. And he started acting strange. Did she explain what he was doing? Well, like, you know, just talking.

Like, just talking. You know what I mean? It was like, God real, is the devil real? But she was disturbed by, worried for him by how he was speaking. Yeah. Yeah. Because my brother ain't never talk like that. His sister called his brother Joe and said, you know, I'm going to send him up to you

and maybe you as his big brother can talk some sense into him. So she puts Daniel on a train from Chicago to Rochester. And he wasn't right. Talking about the devil is coming to get me and all this and that. He was saying people were out to get him. And it was like that moment then when I started hearing that more frequently, I said, oh, man, yeah, they're scaring me. I got to get my brother some help now.

I told my wife, I said, man, grab me the phone. She asked me what I'm about to do. I said, I'll have to get my brother some help. Something's wrong. And they started to scare me. So he called an ambulance and asked for his brother to be admitted because he was having a mental health crisis. No.

But he sent him right back home in three hours. Just three hours later, after arriving at Strong Memorial Hospital, he was sent home in a medical taxi, and his brother was shocked. No diagnosis, no nothing. He felt that Daniel should be there under evaluation, but the doctor said, no, he's free to go. What did he look like when he came back?

I don't like the picture you've seen us holding. Same person. Same visual. Same up. He was upbeat when he came in, gave me a hug. Thank you for doing that for me. Really? He wasn't resentful? No. He was upbeat when he came in. Gave me a hug. Brother, I thank you for doing that for me. Really?

He wasn't resentful? He wasn't mad? No, whatsoever. Then the two of them sat down at the kitchen table at Joe's home on Child Street in Rochester. Talking like two brothers would talk. And Daniel asked for a cigarette. Joe said he stood up, walked to his room to fetch a cigarette,

and when he turned around, Daniel had streaked out the door barefoot into the freezing March weather, and that's when Joe called the police. Hey, what's up? Good, how are you? And what happens next? So at about 3 a.m. on March 23rd, a police officer arrives at Joe's house on Child Street taking a report, what's happened, who are we looking for?

Does he live here? No, he's just here visiting me. Where does he live? And one of the things that is really powerful when you know what transpired here is that Joe is super concerned for Daniel's safety. I just know, man, I just know when he took off running, it was a goddamn train coming. Which way did he go? I don't know which way he ran. I'm being honest with you. I don't know if he went that way or this way. So you saw him run out this front door here? He ran out my back. Ran out the back

door? He ran out the back. There's a train nearby and train tracks, and he's very worried his brother is going to accidentally hurt himself. You don't know where he went? No. He didn't say anything? No. And the only thing I'm praying is that he ain't go in front of that damn train. Yeah. But he didn't say anything. So at some point when the officer's in Joe's house with him taking a report, they hear over the radio. There's a male at that location with blood all over him telling people he's sick and he's not wearing clothes. And Joe immediately knows. That's my brother. That's my brother.

213, where's that at? That may be this male. That's my brother. It's Jefferson Avenue, West Main Street. They're saying it's a 40-year-old black male with no shirt and blue pants on. Is your brother 40? We're from that where we pulled out a phone service and it wasn't me right now. Later that same morning,

an officer returns to Joe's house and tells him your brother's in the hospital. But the bosses just want me to hang out here with you until they figure some more stuff out. Did you call immediately when he ran out? Hell yeah. He used to run track. He can run. Did you call immediately when he ran out? Hell yeah.

He used to run track. He can run. Oh, obviously. I mean, he's all the way down on Jefferson Avenue, so. Yeah, I know. Which is a bad area. I'm glad he went that way and not the way of that damn train. Yeah, absolutely.

And bear in mind, Joe has no idea why he's in the hospital. It was freezing cold out. It's late March. He thinks maybe hypothermia, maybe something bad happened while he was having this episode running around. He doesn't know what put him there. He was butt naked? I have no idea. He was butt naked? Yeah.

He was butt naked? That boy had the strip out there. Yeah, I can't do that. We don't know what to do with him. I can't do that. And neither does your captain? Well, my sergeant sent me over here just to hang out with you guys. New York State had just gone on lockdown because of the pandemic about a week before,

and he can't visit him at the hospital. He can't go see his brother. No visitors are allowed. We're at the height of the coronavirus. No, I'm going to go. I'm going to go make a phone call real quick, and then I'll might be back up with you guys. And it takes until March 30th when he gets a call

from the hospital, you can come in. And when he arrives at the hospital, he realizes that he can come in because it's time to decide whether or not to take his brother off of life support. And what does Joe do after that? Well, in the meantime, this week of being unable to know what happened to Daniel,

Joe had contacted a lawyer he knew and said, something's fishy. My brother ran out the door and never came back. And I need you to help me. So on April 3rd, the lawyers file what's called a preservation letter to the city of Rochester requesting all records be saved regarding Daniel Prude. And they file another request, a freedom of information law request, saying turn over the body cameras from the police officers who apprehended him. And they don't hear anything back. And they chalk it

up to coronavirus and things are closed and life is very difficult. But while the family was sitting there in the dark about what had happened to him, other people knew something had gone down and were looking into it. And one of those people was the state attorney general, Letitia James. On April 21st, her office launched an investigation. And there was another investigation going on, an internal one by the Rochester Police Department. They were reviewing the body camera footage that, bear in mind, the Prudes had still never seen. And they concluded in late April that, quote, So Rochester police clear their own officers.

Yeah. But then on May 18th, Joe Prude gets something startling in the mail. It's the medical examiner's report on how his brother died. And what does that say? It says at the top of it, Daniel T. Prude, manner of death, homicide. And under cause of death, it says complications of asphyxia. And Joe, his brother, told me he didn't know what that

word meant. And he quickly looked it up on his phone. And it means suffocation. Suffocation here on the report in the setting of physical restraint. So the case remains under wraps, even going into May, and it continues to stay locked down through June, through July, until July 31st, when the attorney general invites the Prude family to her office to view the body camera footage from the police. And it shows what really happened to Daniel Prude. And what does the family see on that video? What's his name? Are you Daniel?

So there's several separate videos from different officers' body cameras. There's snow lightly falling. An officer points his taser at Daniel, who's sitting on his knees on the ground, totally naked. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Get on the ground, man. Get on the ground. Put your hands behind your back. Behind your back. Don't move. Don't move. Chill out, man. Don't move. All right, man? Just don't move. Daniel initially complies, does what the officer says, lets him place him in handcuffs.

The officer actually says, well, that was easy and fast. One male in custody. The officer actually says, well, that was easy and fast. One male in custody. Can you reach in here and grab my hand sanitizer? And it soon spirals and becomes very complicated. I can't help it because my brother is the same. Daniel starts spitting on the ground. He had told at least one passerby, according to 901 reports, that he had coronavirus.

Jesus Christ, I pray, amen. Thank you, Lord. He's telling the tow truck driver he had coronavirus. Tell me you better not say shit to me. I'm in the MHM. Yeah. And remember, this is the height of the pandemic. So officers put him in what's called a spit hood.

It's a mesh hood, and they put it over his head, and it sets Daniel off. Stop spitting, man. He starts asking for the officer's guns, and he's continuing to spit while wearing this hood. At one point, the officers say, you're going to stay down, and they press Daniel into the ground.

Actually, one of the officers kind of makes a triangle with his hands and puts his full body weight onto Daniel's skull, pressing him down. And they hold him against the pavement. One places their knee on his back, even as the hood remains on his head.

I don't know. It's freezing out here. He's been out naked for 30 minutes. He feels pretty cold. He says he has corona, but he also... I don't know. I couldn't tell you anything. At one point, Daniel vomits. He's puking? Oh, he's puking.

Just straight water. Did you see all that water came out of his mouth? And there's almost some joking between the officers about his condition. This is all water. My man, you puking? Oh, look at his fucking whole face. But quickly it becomes clear that Daniel is no longer moving and he might not be breathing. He started throwing up now.

It looks like he doesn't even have chest compressions. It doesn't hit me. And they begin to administer CPR. We need you. Coming. Um, thanks. Medical class. Ready?

Yup. One, two, three. Nope. He started expelling like all the clear liquid, like he was throwing up. So PCP can cause what we call excited delirium. Yeah, I know what excited delirium is. That's, I guarantee you, that's why he coded. It's not your guy's problem, you gotta keep yourself safe.

But that's why I was trying to get... I'm just gonna throw him in my door. The final video from the body cameras is Daniel Prude in the hospital. Hopefully he was released from psych earlier is what I was getting. Here? From here. Yep. We'll be right back. Sarah, what does the family do once they have seen this video footage? Bear in mind, Michael, that Daniel has been gone since March 30th. And all this time, they didn't know what had happened to him. Sitting in the attorney general's office watching that body camera footage is the first time they see what really went down.

Joe Sr., his father, according to their lawyer, hyperventilated. He had an asthma attack, and he had to use an inhaler. A few weeks later, the family decides to go wide, and they release those videos to the public. I placed a phone call for my brother to get help, not for my brother to get lynched. Now, when I say got lynched, that was a full-fledged, ongoing murder, cold-blooded, none other than cold-blooded murder.

Who can we hold accountable for this? Why was it a cover-up? Why did my brother get harmed when he complied with everything that them people wanted him to do? Why did he get treated like an African-American male from 1960? That's the case you should have just sucked a damn dog on him. How many more brothers got to die for society to understand that this needs to stop? And I can't even share with y'all the pain that I'm feeling. And my family is going through a sweat.

These things that's going on right now... What is the reaction once these videos become public? So Rochester erupts in what now has become a familiar scene of protests against police brutality of Black people. At the same time, the mayor announces that the seven officers who were involved in Daniel's arrest have been suspended from the force. But if there was any hope that that would quell the protests, it did not. I watched as about 200 people gathered in front of the church on Jefferson Avenue where Daniel Prude was pressed to the ground. It was a passionate yet largely peaceful crowd. They ended up in front of police headquarters in Rochester, where they sat against barricades, calling for more reforms, chanting at police. Why are you in riot gear? We don't see a riot here. And it quieted down and someone brought

boxes and boxes of pizza. And as I stood there with them while they were sitting on the ground eating pizza and chanting, suddenly those officers in riot gear rushed the crowd, unprovoked, and shot pepper spray all over them. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought they did something. They did not. They did not. That set off an escalation. Protesters pulled up barricades, ran at police with them. Police fired more noxious fumes at them. And I watched as what had begun as a peaceful night emerged as something much more fraught.

And Sarah, I have to imagine that part of the reaction here is based on just how long it has taken for the public to learn about what's happened, right? I mean, the video is released four months after Daniel Prude's death and after months and months of protests and counter-protests across the country about events just like this. That's another thing that's fueling a lot of the anger surrounding this. There have been accusations of a cover-up

and just about everyone involved says, no, that's not the case, blaming other parties for the reason why they didn't come forward. The mayor, for example, her name's Lovely Warren, said that... After our police department responded to the 911 call on March 23rd,

I was informed later that day by Chief Singletary that Mr. Prude had an apparent drug overdose while in custody. She'd been told by the police that there was a death in custody, but Daniel Prude had died of a drug overdose. Chief Singletary never informed me of the actions of his officers to forcibly restrain Mr. Prude. I only learned of those officers' actions on August 4th, when Corporation Counsel Tim Curtin reviewed the video while fulfilling the FOIL request from Mr. Prude's attorney. At no time prior to August 4th did Chief Singletary or anyone make me aware or show me a video of the actions of the RPD officers involved in Mr. Pru's death? Mayor Warren said that on June 4th, about three months after Daniel died, but a week after George Floyd was killed, actually,

the Attorney General's office asked the city not to release the camera footage. The Attorney General's office asked the city not to release the camera footage. The pretext was to not interfere with the Attorney General's investigation, which was ongoing. But the AG's office says this never happened, that this is just how long an investigation takes. And that to them explains the delay. The police chief came out the other day and said, when we said this was an overdose, we were not covering up what we did here. But the question is, why did it take so long for this to become public? Would we have found out about George Floyd if not for the footage? Would we have found out about Jacob Blake if not for the footage. Often municipalities don't disclose this, and it's up to us to figure

out why. What happened with Daniel Prude is his family took it into their own hands to take his story public. And now it's our job to understand what took so long. You know, Sarah, I'm mindful that in the early weeks following George Floyd's death at the hands of police, much of the conversation was about the precise role that police do play and should play and the question of whether police are being asked to do too much. And this is at the heart of the conversation around defunding the police, this idea that, for example, police are not trained as mental health responders. They don't instinctively de-escalate.

And the timing of what happened to Daniel Prude feels important here because it's easy to imagine that if what had happened to him had been known to the public back when it really happened, that Daniel Prude would have been a potentially very important data point in that conversation. But months have passed,

and now much of the conversation surrounding these deaths in the hands of police have become about the protests and the counter-protests and how they fit into the presidential election. And in the days since this video of Daniel Prude has been released to the public, we aren't really having the conversation you might expect us to be having around mental health and how the police respond when there's a 911 call.

Actually, that is the conversation that has just started happening in Rochester. Good afternoon. On Sunday, Mayor Warren announced... It is my solemn duty as the mayor of this city to honor Mr. Prude, to not let his death be in vain, and to do everything possible to transform how we police our city, to truly protect and serve our residents. We are doubling the availability of mental health professionals.

She'll be removing the family crisis intervention team from the police department, where it's been for a long time, into the Department of Youth and Recreation Services. And I understand that there are certain calls that law enforcement shouldn't handle alone. And we are looking at ways to reimagine policing surrounding mental health and have been for the last several months. Really, Rochester is taking steps to maybe say that police aren't the people who should be responding to every call all the time. And maybe there are other ways to handle different crises. But nationally, you're right, Michael,

the conversation has been about protests, about who does this get elected, and not about police reform. What truly matters is creating a city that is dedicated to serving, protecting, and lifting up the least among us. What will always pain me about the death of Mr. Daniel Prude is our failure to do that. We had a human being in need of help, in need of compassion. In that moment, we had an opportunity to protect him,

to keep him warm, to bring him to safety, to begin the process of healing him and lifting him up. We have to own the fact that in that moment, we did not do that. Sarah, I'm curious what Joe Prude now says about his decision to call the police that night, because in his mind, the police would protect his brother from harm. I don't think that Joe gets a moment of rest from exactly that question. What would have happened if I hadn't called police? I know a million people. I was just basically telling her, you know what I mean? I regret calling them people because now I feel like it's my fault. Yeah.

Yeah, he does. I've been beating myself up about that ever since that shit happened. Making that call is what killed it. Yeah. Yeah, he does. He says it all the time. Making that call is what killed him. That call really fucked me up. Well, it's like the police were taught you can call for help, right? That's who you call. They proved me wrong. Proved me goddamn wrong.

I don't think a million people telling you it's not your fault will help you. No, it won't. I know it's not. That phone call was my fault. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you. Over the weekend, New York's Attorney General, Letitia James, announced that she would impanel a grand jury to examine evidence in the death of Daniel Prude, a move that was immediately applauded by Prude's family.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. Recording? Yeah. I just want to say, man, to all the young cats out there, and even the older ones, older than me, it's a lot more life to live out here, man. Jacob Blake, who survived after being shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin,

broke his silence over the weekend in a video from his hospital bed. Your life, and not only just your life, your legs, something that you need to move around and move forward, and I could be taken from you like this, man. Blake described debilitating injuries from the shooting, which he said required staples across his stomach and back. It's pain. It's nothing but pain.

It hurts to breathe. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat. And India has overtaken Brazil as the country with the second largest outbreak of the coronavirus, as infections inside the country skyrocket. On Monday alone, India reported nearly 91,000 new infections,

taking its total to more than 4.2 million. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Babarro. See you tomorrow.