ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Attorneys for seven suspended Rochester police officers spoke out during a news conference on Thursday in what they say was an effort to balance the narrative in the Daniel Prude case.

They laid out a timeline of the RPD response to Prude the day police approached him and later took him into custody.

Prude died a week later. An autopsy declared he died of asphyxiation in the setting of physical restraint and had PCP in his system.

The attorneys said the officers encountered a man out of control, under the influence of a powerful drug, and who had told officers he had coronavirus. They say officers subdued Prude to get him ready to go into an ambulance to go back to the hospital. They say at no time was Prude's neck, windpipe, mouth, or nose covered. They also say the officers followed training, using techniques put forth by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and used by other agencies.

The attorneys said Prude's case was not a matter of mental health, but that of someone who voluntarily took drugs. They said his death was tragic, but that it was ultimately caused by Prude taking PCP, not by the actions of the police.

"The main goal of the officers on the scene was to secure Mr. Prude and to get him medical help. His voluntary use of PCP ultimately made that impossible," said Matthew Rich, union attorney for the RPD.

Attorneys want the officers reinstated because they have not been charged criminally in the case and say they did as they were trained to do.

During the press conference, lawyers introduced a video showing how officers are instructed to use their hands on a person's head and shoulder to immobilize someone on the ground. The maneuver, described by some as a push-up stance, is one of the actions officers took that Prude's family and attorney say led Prude to stop breathing and to die a week later.

Attorneys say officers have had death threats and bounties placed on them since Prude's death was made public by his family's attorneys in September.

They argue justice for Prude would include possible changes to training or police response.