Seven police officers involved in the asphyxiation death of Daniel Prude last spring have been suspended, the mayor of Rochester, N.Y, said Thursday, as Black Lives Matter protesters held demonstrations in the city’s streets for a second straight day. Mr. Prude, a Black man, died in a hospital seven days after a March 23 incident, in which Rochester Police Department officers took him into custody after responding to reports of a person acting erratically, officials and his family said. The circumstances surrounding Mr. Prude’s death only became public after his family held a news conference Wednesday and released officers’ body-camera footage showing them restraining him. A police report said that “officers applied a spit sock” to Mr. Prude; he later vomited and became unresponsive. A spit sock, also called a spit hood, is a restraint device sometimes used by police to prevent someone from biting or spitting.

Source: Wall Street Journal September 03, 2020 15:33 UTC