Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren kept important details of the secret condition of Daniel Prude’s death in custody for months, and lied to the public about the case, a new investigation has found.
A report constituted by lawmen of the city and released on Friday found that Warren had come to know from the day of the mortal on March 23, 2020 that his head was covered with a hood after the arrest, and a policeman His face was pushed off the ground, while another held his knee in his back.
Warren and former police chief Lauren Singleri also knew in April that those actions had killed a mentally ill man and received an 84-page report under police criminal investigation.
The report said that at a press conference in September, Warren claimed that police had only put a hood on the unarmed black man’s head in August.
According to the report, she was also dishonest when she claimed that the police had misled her about the circumstances of the case.
Investigators also found that police officers urged city leaders to delay releasing bodycam footage of Prude’s death to avoid being targeted by Black Lives Matter protesters, prompting police to assassinate George Floyd But resented
In a video made public by Prude’s family, Prud is seen wearing handcuffs and naked and with a hood over his head while he is being controlled by two cops.
Prude stopped breathing during the arrest, and life was resorted to after a week.
“In the final analysis, the decision not to disclose these facts publicly rested with Mayor Warren, as the elected mayor of the City of Rochester,” the report stated.
“But Mayor Warren Prude is not alone responsible for the arrest and suppression of the circumstances of Mr. Prud’s death.”
Ignoring the findings of his dishonesty report, Warren said he welcomed it “because it allows our community to move forward.”
“During the city’s government, we have accepted our responsibility, recognized that changes are necessary and action has been taken,” he said, citing various measures on police practices and discipline, “the Democrat said.
A lawyer representing the city of Rochester denied that Warren had lied about the case, claiming that if he had not said anything true, it was because he had been misled by Singletary. Was done, which was fired amid the outcome of the case.
The report found that Singletary told the mayor the specifics of the incident, but “consistently despoiled” the restraint’s role in Prude’s death, “affecting the possibility” of how city officials viewed the case.
Warren told the public that Singleri initially told him that Prude had died of a “drug overdose”, but the report found that he never told her.
When she failed to correct Warren’s assertions, Singleri was told to make an “untrue statement by omission” stating that she did not know that Prude’s death was a suicide at a September press conference. The report states that Singleri stated that she was murdered on April 13 on her death.
A city attorney was also reported to have falsely implicated the report, with Warren not taking disciplinary action against the city official, while state prosecutors investigated.
In February, a grand jury did not induce the officers involved in Prudo’s death to pursue Attorney General Letitia James, who demanded justice in the case after weeks of protesting footage of the incident.
Lawyers for the seven officers suspended over Prude’s death have said that Upvarley followed his training that night, and blamed the 41-year-old’s PCP use for his death.
“There is no surprise there.” It most confirms what I already knew, ”said attorney Elliot Shields, who represents Prud’s brother, Joe.
“It shows me in a big way that the city has systemic failures,” he said.
Prude’s family has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Rochester Police Department tried to cover up his death.
With ap wires
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