Elliot Shields is an attorney representing the family of Daniel Prude.

"The whole system failed," Shields said. "The whole system failed Daniel on the night of the incident. The whole system failed on holding these officers accountable."

What You Need To Know

  • Prude family attorney Elliot Shields says the system failed Daniel Prude, and failed to hold officers accountable

  • Shields said his request to the city that it retains all body camera recordings and evidence related to the incident was ignored for months

  • City Corporation Counsel Tim Curtin said Friday that the local deputy attorney general's office told a city attorney that the AG's office preferred the city not release the video until its investigation into the incident was complete

  • The attorney general's office again refuted Friday that it prevented the city from released the video or informing the public

He explained that nearly two weeks after Prude died in police custody in March, he sent a request to the city of Rochester that it retain all body camera recordings and evidence related to the incident for a potential wrongful death and violation of civil rights lawsuit.

Shields said he was unsure if the city's corporate counsel immediately notified the mayor about the request - but says he knows it was ignored for months.

"Where a Black man died at the hands of police and she says that wasn't elevated to her at that point, and she says it wasn't elevated to her after the death of George Floyd two months later, but it wasn't elevated to her until August 4, that's outrageous."

City Corporation Counsel Tim Curtin said Friday that on June 4, the local deputy attorney general's office told a city attorney that the AG's office preferred the city not release the video until its investigation into the incident was complete.

Curtin also advised Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren to not make any public comments about prude.

He then added that the AGs office reviewed the tape with the attorney for the Prude family.

"They are not going to come in and inspect the tape if the attorney general had authorized us to release the tape so the fact that they had to go through the attorney general's office to review the tape is pretty indicator that we were not allowed to release the tape," said Curtin.

Shortly after that event Friday, the attorney general's office again refuted that it prevented the city from released the video or informing the public.

“There was never a request from the attorney general’s office to the city of Rochester corporation counsel to withhold information about the events surrounding the death of Daniel Prude, plain and simple. Once again, the city of Rochester and the Rochester Police Department are free to move forward with their own investigation," an AG spokesperson said in a statement. 

Shields says he never bought the city's argument and getting the footage in August left him with one conclusion.

"When they finally gave it to us, all of the excuses that they gave showed that was untrue," Shields said. "They could have turned it over immediately and they chose not to and that's why there was a delay in letting the world know what happened to Daniel Prude."