A briefing session with Mayor Lovely Warren and the Rochester City Council resumed this afternoon...with an apology from the mayor for not informing the council about the death of Daniel Prude. The mayor has said she learned the manner of Prude's death after being restrained by Rochester police on August 4th, but did not comment on it until the body camera video was released by the Prude family a week ago today.
It was the continuation of Tuesday’s meeting, which came to a halt when Mayor Warren announced the retirement of Chief La’Ron Singletary and his entire leadership team.
No members of the Rochester Police Department attended the virtual council meeting. Members wanted to question Chief Singletary about the decisions made Saturday night, when police unleashed pepper balls and teargas on demonstrators outside the Public Safety Building. Council was forced to listen to written answers to questions it previously submitted to the chief. That frustrated Councilman Michael Patterson, who called it unacceptable that nobody from the police leadership team had the courage to attend
Mayor Warren says since the chief and his top command staff have retired, she's not certain they can be compelled to speak to city council. She said she will make the request for the chief to appear at a future briefing, but said he's very busy on the transition plan for the future leadership of the department. She said that plan will be supplied to council when it's finished.
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren told council members she did sit down with the leadership team of the Rochester Police department between Saturday night, when police fired the pepper balls and teargas at demonstrators, and Sunday, when they did not.
The mayor says she and Spiritus Christ Church Pastor Myra Brown briefed the department commanders on their plan to have church elders stand between police and demonstrators protesting the death of Daniel Prude. But the mayor says she did not direct police to stand down from their more aggressive posture of Friday and Saturday nights. She says the department's command staff was in charge.
But Rochester Police Locust Club President Mike Mazzeo says it's his belief that City Hall was directing department operations on Sunday and Monday nights. He says the department was deviating from standard crowd control procedures and he said "that goes to the mayor's office."
Mazzeo says rank-and-file officer morale is poor after the chief’s retirement, but he says officers are doing their jobs and he’s going to be there to support them.