In Jesus Christ I pray, amen. Take this shit off my face.

On March 23, 2020, 41 year old Daniel Terrell Prude, an African-American man living in Chicago, was fatally suffocated by officer Mark Vaughn during his apprehension by Rochester, New York police officers. Daniel Prude had arrived in Rochester to visit his brother on Mar. 22 and had been displaying erratic behaviour from increasing reliance of phencyclidine or PCP. Prude had been taken to Strong Memorial Hospital the next day but released several hours later returning to his brother's home which he fled at 3am with neither coat nor shoes into the snowy March night. Rochester Police, responding to a call for assistance from Prude's brother, Joe and a passerby, had found Prude wandering, bloody and naked, on Jefferson Ave. in a state of "excited delirium".

Officer Vaughn, with pointed taser, ordered Prude to the ground with his hands behind his back and was able to handcuff him without incidence. Vaughn placed a spit hood over his head after he began spitting and when attempting to stand was forcefully pinned to the pavement. While officer Talladay applied a knee to his back, Vaughn applied full body weight to Prude's head for two minutes and fifteen seconds using a "hypoglossal nerve technique" according to his police report. Prude is heard crying, vomits and stops breathing. Prude received CPR on the scene and later died of complications from asphyxia after being taken off life support on March 30.

The killing first received attention in September 2020 when the police body camera video and written reports were released along with the autopsy report. All seven officers on the scene were suspended on Sept. 3 a day after the release of the body camera footage and on Sept. 8, Rochester's police chief, his deputy and commander all resigned but were subsequently fired by Rochester's mayor after an internal review. Tameshay Prude, Mr. Prude’s sister, has filed a civil rights lawsuit in United States District Court against the City of Rochester and the officers involved.

The work is compiled from approximately 150 manipulated video stills from police body cameras and attempts to record and historicize Daniel Prude's death as a narrative for change and protest against racism and police brutallity. Daniel Prude's life mattered. BLM.