[Daniel Prude]
NBC: “Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said during a city council briefing Tuesday that the ‘entire Rochester police command staff’ has retired and ‘there may be a number of others that will decided to leave as well.”
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The chief and entire command staff of the police department in Rochester, New York, resigned on Tuesday — with others possibly to follow — amid outrage over the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man with mental health issues who died after being put in a “spit hood” and restrained by officers in March.
Rochester Police Chief La’Ron Singletary announced he would be retiring Tuesday after 20 years on the police force, according to a media release from the department. Singletary said the events of the past week “are an attempt to destroy my character and integrity.”
“The members of the Rochester Police Department and the Greater Rochester Community know my reputation and know what I stand for,” Singletary’s resignation said. “The mischaracterization and the politicization of the actions that I took after being informed of Mr. Prude’s death is not based on facts, and is not what I stand for.”
Deputy Police Chief Joseph Morabito also announced his retirement on Tuesday. Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said during a city council briefing Tuesday that the “entire Rochester police command staff” has retired and “there may be a number of others that will decided to leave as well.”
Warren insisted to the council Tuesday that Singletary was not asked to resign and that she felt he has given his “very best.”
“I think that the chief has felt that this career and his integrity … you know has been challenged,” Warren said.
The announcement comes on the same day Tameshay Prude, Prude’s sister, filed a lawsuit agains the city and some members for the police department, including Singletary. The complaint claims Prude died as a result of “unlawful force” and the “deliberate disregard” for his medical needs.
Relatives of Prude, 41, released police videos of the March 23 encounter on Wednesday and Thursday and claimed that they show that officers used excessive force.
Read the rest of this story here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rochester-police-chief-steps-down-amid-scrutiny-following-death-daniel-n1239559
