The death of a Black man at the hands of police who used a spit hood to cover his face has made national headlines after his family released video and other records Wednesday.
Daniel Prude was running naked through the streets of Rochester, New York, when police caught up with him. A group of police officers put a spit hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement for two minutes, according to Prude’s family.
Prude died March 30 after he was taken off life support, seven days after the encounter with police.
A spit hood, according to Amnesty International UK, is a single-use hood that can be placed over the head of any subject who presents a significant risk to officers or others from spitting or biting. The hood is supplied in a sealed plastic packet and comes in one size, designed to fit most people. The hood is made of nylon mesh, with a plastic reinforced panel at the front and allows the subject to see and breathe almost normally.
Spit hoods are applied at officers’ discretion.
Spit hoods have been scrutinized as a factor in the deaths of several prisoners in the U.S. and other countries in recent years, according to The Associated Press. A medical examiner concluded Prude’s death was caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.” The report lists excited delirium and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or PCP, as contributing factors.
According to The New York Times, spit hoods have been involved in several deaths in law enforcement custody.
“I placed a phone call for my brother to get help. Not for my brother to get lynched,” Prude’s brother, Joe Prude, said Wednesday. “How did you see him and not directly say, ‘The man is defenseless, buck naked on the ground. He’s cuffed up already. Come on.’ How many more brothers gotta die for society to understand that this needs to stop?”
The videos show Prude, who had taken off his clothes, complying when police ask him to get on the ground and put his hands behind his back. Prude is agitated and shouting as he sits on the pavement in handcuffs for a few moments as a light snow falls. “Give me your gun, I need it,” he shouts.
Then police placed the spit hood over Prude’s head. At the time, New York was in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. Prude demanded they remove it.
Then the officers slam Prude’s head into the street. One officer, who is white, holds his head down against the pavement with both hands, saying “calm down” and “stop spitting.” Another officer places a knee on his back.
“Trying to kill me!” Prude says, his voice becoming muffled and anguished under the hood.
“OK, stop. I need it. I need it,” the prone man begs before his shouts turn to whimpers and grunts.
The officers appear to become concerned after he stops moving, falls silent and they notice water coming out of Prude’s mouth.
“My man. You puking?” one says.
One officer notes that he’s been out, naked, in the street for some time. Another remarks, “He feels pretty cold.” His head had been held down by an officer for just over two minutes, the video shows. The officers then remove the hood and his handcuffs and medics can then be seen performing CPR before he’s loaded into an ambulance.
Prude was from Chicago and had just arrived in Rochester for a visit with his brother. He was kicked off the train before it got to Rochester, in Depew, “due to his unruly behavior,” according to an internal affairs investigator’s report.
Rochester police officers took Prude into custody for a mental health evaluation about 7 p.m. March 22 for suicidal thoughts, about eight hours before the encounter that led to his death. But his brother said he was only at the hospital for a few hours, according to the reports.
Police responded again after Joe Prude called 911 at about 3 a.m. to report that his brother had left his house.
The city halted its investigation into Prude’s death when state Attorney General Letitia James’ office began its own investigation in April. Under New York law, deaths of unarmed people in police custody are often turned over to the attorney general’s office, rather than handled by local officials.
James said Wednesday that investigation is continuing.
