A driver accelerated through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in New York City on Thursday after the crowd surrounded the vehicle, police investigating the incident said.
A crowd of protesters congregated near the corner of West 46th Street and Broadway on Thursday evening over the death of Daniel Prude, according to The Wall Street Journal. Prude, a 41-year-old black man, died in March, but video of a police interaction preceding his death was released on Wednesday, sparking racially-charged protesting in New York.
Video of a black Ford Taurus driving through a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Times Square surfaced online soon after the incident Thursday night. Police say they are investigating the incident and are looking into reports of injuries that appeared on social media.
Police said that the car was parked for the protest, but the driver took off after demonstrators began to surround the vehicle. From the video, the driver appears to initially accelerate and bump into several protesters. After a brief pause, the driver accelerates again and drives out of the crowd and onto a relatively clear street.
Police arrested Prude in Rochester, New York, on March 23 after two people, including Prude’s brother, called authorities saying that Prude was acting erratically and having mental health issues. When police arrived, Prude was naked and yelling that he had the coronavirus. He also repeatedly challenged police officers, even after being handcuffed and lying face down on the ground.
The Daily Wire reports:
As cops were physically restraining the man for about two minutes, body camera footage … and media reports suggest the 41-year-old threw up and loss consciousness. He was reportedly resuscitated on the way to the hospital but likely suffered severe brain damage and was pulled from life support about a week later by his family.
Notably, Prude has a mesh-like hood placed over his head, dubbed a “spit hood.” The device is used to protect officers from saliva. Prude was repeatedly spitting and reportedly telling people he had COVID.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Prude had died from “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint due to excited delirium due to acute phencyclidine intoxication,” evidence that Prude may have been high on PCP at the time.
Seven police officers have been suspended while and investigation into the incident is conducted.
The video of Prude’s arrest sparked unrest and protests in Rochester. One man voiced his anger to Spectrum News reporter Brianna Hamblin on Thursday, saying, “We want badges, we want Chief of Police badges. We want it because they swept this under the rug.”
“Black lives do matter, okay? We want to see those officers arrested, and if we don’t—we tired. We are tired. We tired of it, man,” he continued. “They act like black people—we want justice all over the world, we want equal pay, we want equal rights, when you go to court, we wanna be treated equal.”