Daniel Prude’s Family Has Reached a Multi-Million Dollar Settlement with City of Rochester

Kalyn Womack
·2 min read
Armin Prude, left, and Joe Prude hold an enlarged photo of Daniel Prude, Sept. 3, 2020, who died following a police encounter, in Rochester, N.Y. City officials have agreed to pay $12-million to the family of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died after police held him down until he stopped breathing after encountering him running naked through the snowy streets of Rochester, NY. A federal judge approved the settlement in a court document filed Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022.

The family of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in custody of Rochester police, will be paid $12 million in settlement by the city, according to an NBC News report. Prude’s case was another where someone in desperate need of mental help lost their life at the hands of cops who weren’t trained to handle mental crises.

In March of 2020, Prude had gotten a mental health check at a hospital but the next day, had displayed concerning behavior causing his brother to call the police for help. When officers got to Prude, he was naked but complied with their commands to get on the floor and put his hands behind his back. Per the footage, the officers pushed him back on the ground after sitting him up, placed a knee on his back and pushed him into the pavement for several minutes.

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Prude died due to asphyxia complications, a lack of oxygen - similar to the manner in which George Floyd died.

More on the settlement from Democrat & Chronicle:

The settlement is not an admission of liability, the court documents show. Members of Prude’s estate also waived their right to appeal.

Attorneys for Prude’s estate called for the New York Legislature to pass “Daniel’s Law,” a bill that would replace police response to calls for mental health interventions with trained mental health professionals.

“No purely monetary settlement can truly address the fundamental problem of police violence that underlies this tragic case,” Attorney Matthew Piers said in the press release. “Policing in this country must be reformed to be more humane. This is true especially, but not only, in communities of color that are so frequently harmed by systems that purport to serve and protect them.”

While the government is spending time pouring funds into the police department, they could be pouring more money into mental and behavioral health care. After the pandemic, up to 54 percent of clinicians reported burnout and 86 of them report anxiety, according to the American Hospital Association. Also, affordable health care coverage often treat mental and behavioral health differently than your typical surgery or medical emergency.

Now, we’re looking at “crisis intervention teams” who promise to train officers to work with social workers and mental health professionals but can barely manage to connect the patient to treatment.

At the root, racial bias festers within both law enforcement and the healthcare system. It’s a lose-lose.