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Daniel Prude protesters rush shocked diners and smash up New York restaurant: ‘We're shutting your party down’

Many guests at the eatery in Rochester appeared terrified as protesters smashed the customers' glasses, plates, and overturned chairs

A group of protesters in New York caused diners in a restaurant to flee the eatery on Friday night, September 4, during a demonstration over the death Daniel Prude, an unarmed Black man, in police custody. A video from the scene of the incident, which is being widely shared on social media, showed huge crowds of anti-racism protesters in Rochester, surrounding a restaurant where diners were eating. Many guests at the eatery appeared terrified as protesters smashed the customers' glasses, plates, and overturned chairs. The demonstrators reportedly also chanted at the customers to get out of the restaurant.

The incident occurred as over 1,000 protesters gathered in downtown Rochester, where 41-year-old Prude suffocated to death in police custody as an officer put a spit hood over his head and pinned him to the ground. Prude died days later of asphyxiation. 

The protesters, in footage taken by FreedomNewsTV, can be seen surrounding diners as one woman shouts: "We're shutting your party down." Seeing the commotion, a customer attempts to run from the incoming crowd but a protester tells her: "No need to run. Nobody is hurting you. Nobody's going to touch you...we're shutting the party down." The crowd gathered then chants: "If you don't give us our s***, we shut s*** down."

The incident comes as the protesters in Rochester entered its third day on Friday. The demonstration on Friday began peacefully at around 6:30 pm at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park. However, later pepper balls were fired at demonstrators, a bus stop was set on fire and police declared the gathering an "unlawful assembly." The officers reportedly took to the streets and shouted through megaphones: "Rochester police has deemed this an unlawful assembly. People who stayed behind would be arrested." The Rochester Police Department has come under fire as its officers were involved in Prude's death.

All seven officers involved in the death of Daniel Prude were suspended, as of Thursday, September 3. Prude was declared brain dead after his encounter with Rochester Police Department on March 23 this year, months before George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis. Prude was put on life support, however, he was taken off it seven days later when his condition did not improve. 

The incident occurred when Prude's brother, Joe, called 911 for assistance, telling the call operator that his sibling had suffered a mental health episode. Prude, at the time, had been visiting his brother in Rochester from Chicago. Prude reportedly walked out of his brother's house in frigid temperatures at 3 am post-midnight, wearing only underwear, a tank top and socks. Bodycam footage recently released showed an unclothed Prude complying to police officers' requests and later an officer put a spit hood on him when Prude began spitting. The officer, however, pinned Prude to the ground with the hood on for several minutes as he struggled to breathe. After he became unresponsive, the 41-year-old was then loaded into an ambulance after medics performed CPR. Prude was a father of five adult children.