ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A grand jury will not seek charges against officers shown on body camera video holding Daniel Prude down naked and handcuffed on a city street last winter until he stopped breathing.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the decision Tuesday. She added that many will be “rightfully” disappointed, but said they must respect the decision.

“Daniel Prude was in the throes of a mental health crisis and what he needed was compassion, care, and help from trained professionals. Tragically, he received none of those things,” said James. “We concluded that there was sufficient evidence surrounding Mr. Prude’s death to warrant presenting the case to a grand jury, and we presented the most comprehensive case possible. While I know that the Prude family, the Rochester community, and communities across the country will rightfully be devastated and disappointed, we have to respect this decision.”

The 41-year-old Black man’s death last March sparked nightly protests in Rochester, New York, after the video was released nearly six months later.

The video made public on Sept. 4 shows Prude handcuffed and naked with a spit hood over his head as an officer pushes his face against the ground. Lawyers for the seven police officers suspended over Prude’s death have said they were strictly following their training.

The county medical examiner listed the manner of death as a homicide.

While the grand jury voted not to indict any officers, James says “serious concerns” remain regarding the actions of the Rochester Police Department.

“The current laws on deadly force have created a system that utterly and abjectly failed Mr. Prude and so many others before him. Serious reform is needed, not only at the Rochester Police Department, but to our criminal justice system as a whole,” said James. “I will be pursuing a multifaceted approach to address the very issues that have prevented us from holding officers accountable when they improperly use deadly force.”

The AG has issued a number of recommendations to address said concerns, specifically when handling mental health crises:

1. James says officers, dispatchers and EMS personnel must be trained to recognize the symptoms of excited delirium syndrome and to respond to it as a serious medical emergency.
2. She says all communities should assess models for responding to crisis situations that minimize or eliminate police responses to mental health calls whenever possible.
3. The AG believe New York should mandate de-escalation training for all officers, and police agencies should reflect a commitment to de-escalation in their use of force policies.
4. She says the City of Rochester should adopt a body worn camera release policy regarding critical incidents.
5. And lastly, James says law enforcement agencies should explore the use of spit sock alternatives.

CINCINNATI —

The man at the center of gripping police body camera video says he is remorseful and lucky to be alive.

Tony Timberlake had just retrieved a gun from his car during a volatile scene on Hawaiian Terrace last month. There were several children and police officers in the immediate area.

Officer Deon Mack, one of several Cincinnati police officers on scene, spotted the gun in his hand and drew his weapon.

"Hey! Put that s*** down. F*** wrong with you!? Put that s*** down." Mack yelled.

It stunned Timberlake and he put the gun down. Cincinnati police leadership said many less experienced officers would have fired their weapon.

"It's just like a flashback came back like wow," Timberlake said, explaining how he felt when he saw the video for the first time. "I was not tryna hurt nobody. I was just trying to protect my family, you know? And I wasn't gonna shoot nobody. Just put it in my holster, come back and sit down."

Police were responding to a juvenile throwing a brick through the home where Timberlake, his fiance and several children live.

"In response to that, his juvenile ran outside and grabbed one of the kids and assaulted him. Then those children went and got their families and their friends of families," Mack explained, estimating that the scene quickly grew to several dozen people.

"You almost forced me and many others to take your life," Mack is heard saying to Timberlake on his body camera video. "And that would have been so unfair, not only to you, not only to your family but to us."

"I lost my head. I'm sorry," Timberlake responded.

He told WLWT he had no intention of shooting anyone but wanted the gun on his for protection. It was not loaded. Mack said within a few seconds, he saw that there was no magazine in the gun but did not know if there was a bullet in the chamber.

Mack said he was aware that several people at the scene threatened Timberlake and his family, saying they would come back to their apartment once police left.

That encouraged Mack to push for Timberlake to be released and not arrested.

Timberlake does not have a criminal history, and he said his gun is legally registered. He does not have a CCW permit.

"The only real reason you are being cut a break is because I really have compassion for your family, and I have compassion for your family because when we leave here, they need somebody to help protect them," Mack said.

"I was just so grateful and thanked God that he did not or they did not, all of them, did not shoot him," said Sabrina Clark, Timberlake's fiance. "That would have killed me literally, 'cause he was here tryna be for our family, tryna protect us."

Clark watched the entire encounter.

"I've done seen so much that cops been going through and at the blink of an eye, when a man pulls out a gun, they don't know what that man is gonna do," she said.

Mack said after the scene quieted down, she thanked him for sparing Timberlake's life.

Timberlake was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. He said he appreciates Mack and was glad he was responded that day.

"He's a good person and he was doing his job. He made sure nothing happened," he said. "He's a good cop. If it wasn't for him, there's no telling what would happen."

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — For nearly a dozen nights, Josh Grooten has taken to the streets of his hometown, Elizabeth City.

“Basically, I wanted to support my community,” Grooten said. “We're just out here making a stand. We just want the tape. That's what we want — we want the tape.”

Monday night, Grooten and others marched down Ehringhaus Street with police following closely, hours after Andrew Brown Jr.’s funeral.

Brown was shot and killed by a Pasoquotank County sheriff's deputy on April 21. His death added to the list of officer-involved deaths that have led to protests across the country, including several days of peaceful ones in Elizabeth City.

“It's crazy what's going on right now, and I love my daddy to death,” one of Brown’s sons said at his funeral Monday.

Brown's family and civil rights leaders, including Rev. Al Sharpton, joined the message protesters have voiced for nearly two weeks since Brown's death, calling for answers and the release of the body cam footage related to the shooting.

“This must stop,” Sharpton said. “I come in Jesus’s name to stand up for a Black man that might've had a record, but he had a right to live his life.”

Meanwhile, for Grooten, he said what drives him to keep protesting is to keep the pressure on.

“We want answers, and we're asking for answers, and we won't stop until we get answers,” he said.

Law enforcement did not respond when asked if any arrests were made during Monday night's demonstrations.

While video footage of the shooting has not been made public, the sheriff's department showed Brown's family and their lawyers a a 20-second portion of the video last week. Brown's claims the video showed an "execution."

An autopsy commissioned by Brown's family and their lawyers showed that he was shot five times during the incident — four times in his arm, and once in the back of the head.

Meanwhile, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and FBI are both investigating the shooting, and Governor Roy Cooper has called for a special prosecutor to handle the case.

This story was originally published by Zak Dahlheimer on Scripps station WTKR in Norfolk, Virginia.