ROCHESTER, N.Y. —  The attorney representing Daniel Prude's brother and son says counsel for the suspended Rochester police officers linked to the Prude case affirmed with their news conference Thursday that the RPD has a "real problem with training, supervision, and disciplinary processes."

Elliot Shields said the attorney's introduction of a training video demonstrating proper execution of the "segmenting" restraint maneuver proved the officers did not administer the move properly when they attempted to take Prude to the hospital following his handcuffing and being taken into custody on Jefferson Avenue March 23.

What You Need To Know

  • Counsel for the suspended Rochester police officers linked to the Daniel Prude case spoke on Thursday 

  • Elliot Shields said that Thursday's press conference affirmed that the RPD has problems with training, supervision, and disciplinary processes

  • He said the attorney's introduction of a training video proved the officers did not administer the move properly when they attempted to take Prude to the hospital

  • Shields also challenged one officer's claim that he monitored Prude's breathing while subduing him, and another officer's version that he applied the hold on Prude as trained

Prude lost consciousness while being held down by officers. He died seven days later. His death, revealed five months later, spurred a month of demonstrations in Rochester that continues with calls for the resignation of the mayor and district attorney. It's led to four investigations, including one by the state attorney general, as well as retirements, reassignments, and dismissals at the top of the Rochester police department's highest leadership ranks. 

The training video that attorneys released focuses on the position of the officers on someone who is face down on the ground. In the video, the person being subdued has his hands free. Shields pointed out Prude's hands were restrained by handcuffs. Shields also said the segmenting demonstration also showed that, when compared to police camera video from Prude being taken into custody, the officers were not positioned correctly, as the officers' attorneys and union leaders have said. 

"They say well, one of the officers, in our case, Officer Taladay, would control the person's hips with the officer's knee. Instead, he had his knee his full body weight in the middle of Daniel Prude's back, which restricts his ability to breathe. And that's why he died," Shields said.

Shields also challenged one officer's claim that he monitored Prude's breathing while subduing him, and another officer's version that he applied the hold on Prude as trained.

"If they followed their training perfectly, why are there inconsistencies in their (officers') paperwork?" asked Shields.

Shields also said RPD internal guidelines tell officers to be careful in applying restraint when someone is on drugs like PCP, which the officers' attorneys say caused Prude's death. 

"So, if their defense is that he was on PCP, that's simply untrue," Shields said. "They knew according to their training that the position that they put him in put him at a risk of dying of asphyxia."

The Prude family's civil lawsuit against the city of Rochester seeks justice for what they call Prude's murder at the hands of city police officers. The case moves forward in two weeks, when Shields argues before a local judge for the release of additional information related to the city's response to Prude. Two weeks after Rochester's deputy mayor released a more than 350-page report on the timeline and exchanges between city leaders on the Prude case, Shields intends to seek the release of voicemail and text responses between officials that could shed greater light on who knew what about Prude's death, how they learned it, and when.