Five years after the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man killed by the Rochester police while in distress, advocates are still pushing for reforms.
It’s been just over five years since Daniel Prude was killed by Rochester, New York, police officers, after being restrained while experiencing a mental health crisis. The circumstances of his death, and the city’s cover up, set off mass protests in Rochester calling for accountability and the removal of police from mental health responses. A half-decade later, these demands have largely gone unmet.
Daniel Prude, a 41-year-old Black man from Chicago, arrived in Rochester on March 22, 2020, to visit his brother. That night, he suffered an acute mental-health crisis and was taken to a local hospital. The hospital discharged him just four hours later, and Mr. Prude went to his brother’s house.
After Mr. Prude ran out of the house in emotional distress, his brother called 911 for help. Police officers responded and found Mr. Prude bleeding and unclothed in the snow. Officers responded with brutal force, handcuffed Prude, placed a hood over his head, and held him face down on the cold pavement until he stopped breathing. He died a week later after being taken off life support.
“I placed a phone call to get my brother help, not to have my brother lynched,” Joe Prude, Daniel Prude’s brother, said to the Democrat and Chronicle in 2020.
The police killing of Daniel Prude sparked a wave of protests in Rochester, but the video footage of his encounter with police almost didn’t see the light of day. For months, city officials, including the former police chief and former mayor, kept the public in the dark by suppressing video footage of the police encounter. Six months after his death, an independent investigation faulted the entire city administration for mishandling the case and highlighted systemic failures that undermined public trust and exacerbated residents’ grief.
Daniel Prude should be alive today. So should Win Rosario, a 19-year-old Queens teenager who was experiencing a mental health crisis at home when police responded by killing him in front of his family. So should Eleanor Bumpurs, Mohamed Bah, Iman Morales, Kawaski Trawick, and many others on the long list of New Yorkers—disproportionately Black and Brown—who died at the hands of the police while experiencing a mental health crisis.
These killings are devastating reminders that we must end our over-reliance on police as first responders and instead treat mental health crises as public health issues.
Since Prude’s death, his family, mental health advocates, impacted New Yorkers, and organizations like the NYCLU, have called for the passage of Daniel’s Law. This state bill would make teams of peers—individuals with lived mental health experience—and EMTs the primary responders for mental health emergencies. These teams would be trained to de-escalate situations and connect people with appropriate care, thus reducing the need for police intervention and reducing the risk of escalation.
But, despite the creation of a promising state task force in 2023 named after Daniel Prude, Governor Kathy Hochul and New York lawmakers have failed to pass Daniel’s Law.
This year, both the Assembly and the Senate included spending to implement the law in their proposed budgets. But Gov. Hochul did not include funding in her budget blueprint. Instead, she wants to include legislative changes that will make it easier for authorities to forcibly commit people to psychiatric facilities—even when they pose no imminent harm to themselves or others.
It’s true that we must change how we address issues like mental health. But the response must not be to simply lock more people away. That doesn’t make us safer, and it doesn’t solve the root problems that lead to these devastating events.
No New Yorker should die at the hands of the police because they have a disability. We should treat them with compassion, care, and understanding. The Governor and the legislature must heed the call of Daniel Prude’s family and advocates across the state to end our over-reliance on police as first responders in every crisis. This starts with passing Daniel’s Law.
Mohamed Taguine Communications Strategist, Communications & Beth Haroules Director of Disability Justice Litigation, Legal Department
