The family of a Black man in Rochester, New York, is calling for the firing and arrest of all of the police officers involved in his death in March, in which they say a bag was placed over his head.
Organizers from the group Free the People Roc, a Black Lives Matter group, named three officers they say were involved in the incident. CNN is working to confirm their identities and is not naming them at this time. The bodycam footage Disturbing bodycam footage of the incident, which was provided to CNN by attorneys for Prude, compiles multiple officers’ body cameras and has been edited together to show different angles of the incident. For the first few minutes of the approximately 11-minute encounter with police, Prude, who is handcuffed, repeats the phrase “in Jesus Christ I pray, amen.” He also makes various remarks about getting his money to take a plane and asks for the officers’ guns and that they stay away from him. Video shows Prude naked in the middle of a city street at 3:16 a.m. as the footage begins. An officer exits his patrol car, approaches Prude while asking him six times to get on the ground as the officer points a Taser at him. Prude complies and is asked to put his hands behind his back, which he quickly does. The officer then cuffs him as Prude says “yes, sir” several times. Several other officers arrive on scene and one appears to identify Prude by name. Three minutes after the incident begins, one officer puts a bag over Prude’s head. He rolls around on the ground yelling various things. Prude appears to try to stand at approximately 3:20 a.m., and three officers move in to restrain him and hold him to the ground. Police say Prude is spitting and appears to have vomited.
