#Daniel Prude’s aunt remembers him as loving, harmless father of five

Daniel Prude, who suffocated during a confrontation with Rochester police, was the loving father of five adult children who was traumatized by the deaths of his mother and two brothers, according to his aunt, who said he was harmless despite his mental-health problems.

The 41-year-old man — known to his large Chicago-based family as “Rell” — died March 30 after he was taken off life support, a week after police placed a so-called “spit hood” over his head and pushed his face into the ground.

Letoria Moore said her nephew had been shuttling back and forth between his home in the Windy City and his brother Joe’s place in Rochester because he wanted to be close to him.

Prude had been traumatized by the deaths of his mother and a brother in recent years, having lost another brother earlier, she said.

Moore said she knew Prude had some psychological issues, but that when he called two days before his death, “he was the normal Rell that I knew.”

“I didn’t know what was the situation, why he was going through what he was going through that night, but I know he didn’t deserve to be killed by the police,” she said.

Police body-cam videos only released this week show Prude — who had stripped naked — complying when cops ask him to get on the ground and put his hands behind his back.

Prude is seen agitated and shouting as he sits on the ground in handcuffs for a few moments as a light snow falls before the officers put the hood over his head after he claimed to be infected with the coronavirus.

One of the officers then holds his head down to the pavement for over two minutes before medics perform CPR on him, the footage shows.

With Post wires