The city of Rochester (state of New York) will pay 12 million dollars to the family of Daniel Prude, a black man who died in 2020 at the hands of police officers and whose case sparked strong protests within the framework of the movement "Black Lives Matter".
The town’s mayor, Malik D. Evans, announced Thursday a court settlement with Prude’s family, which had sued the city.
"Given the costs of continuing litigation, this settlement was the best decision"Evans said in a statement, in which he also noted that going to trial would have imposed a "painful cost" to the community.
Prude, 41, died in March 2020 after police officers covered his head with a hood and pinned him to the ground.
The coroners determined that his death was a homicide by suffocation, but the Justice chose not to prosecute the police officers involved.
Officers had responded to a call from Prude’s brother, who alerted authorities after the man fled his home semi-naked and behaving strangely, apparently in the midst of a psychotic episode.
Officers intercepted Prude in the street, handcuffed him and then hooded him to stop him from spitting on them, before pinning him to the ground, according to video captured by officers’ cameras.
The man died a week later, when the life support that had been applied to him after arriving battered at the hospital was withdrawn.
The images of the incident did not come to light until months later and caused strong outrage, at a time when the United States was experiencing a great wave of protests against racism and police violence following the death of another African American, George Floyd. , during an arrest in Minneapolis (Minnesota).