Report: Rochester Police, Mayor 'Knowingly Suppressed' Information In Prude Case

Rochester city officials, including the former police chief and the mayor, "knowingly suppressed" information from getting to the public, and some officials made "untrue statements" about the events leading to the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man experiencing a mental health episode who was asphyxiated by police while restrained and handcuffed.

An independent report released on Friday chronicles how ex-Rochester Police Chief La'Ron Singletary and Mayor Lovely Warren, over the course of more than five months, took deliberate steps to avoid disclosing the disturbing nature of the encounter between Prude and the officers. Their actions, the investigation concluded, were prompted by fears of potential protests and violence amid a national reckoning about the death of unarmed Black people in police custody.

"In the final analysis, the decision not to publicly disclose these facts rested with Mayor Warren, as the elected Mayor of the City of Rochester," Andrew Celli, who was hired by the City Council, said in the blistering 84-page report.

"But Mayor Warren alone is not responsible for the suppression of the circumstances of the Prude Arrest and Mr. Prude's death."