protests

A few dozen protesters marched to the office of Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley in downtown Rochester on Thursday, demanding both her resignation and that charges against protesters arrested in previous demonstrations be either dropped or reduced.

Organized by Free the People Roc, about 30 people marched from City Hall to the District Attorney’s Office on Fitzhugh Street. The demonstration was peaceful from both the side of protesters and police, and no arrests were made.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP)  A Rochester man previously arrested during a protest over Daniel Prude's death is now accused by federal prosecutors of posting incendiary messages and instructions to make a Molotov cocktail.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in western New York on Friday charged Ryan Howe of Rochester with intending to incite a riot by making provocative Facebook posts earlier this week. The posts came after a grand jury in Louisville declined to charge police officers in the killing of Breonna Taylor.

The Rochester Police Department racked up nearly $1.4 million in overtime hours preparing for and responding to demonstrations related to the city’s handling of the death of Daniel Prude over the last four weeks.

That figure was presented by the Police Department to members of City Council on Monday and represented RPD overtime pay during the four-week span of Aug. 31 and Sept. 27.

During a visit to Rochester’s Aenon Baptist Church on Sunday, New York State Attorney General Letitia James said her office will announce when it is investigating deaths of unarmed individuals after encounters with law enforcement. She also said her office will release police body camera footage of these incidents as soon as possible.

“I commit that we will notify the public,” said James, "when we arrive at a decision, to assert our jurisdiction in investigations of police officers involved deaths of unarmed civilians, to avoid the situation that occured here in Rochester.”

There has been more than a week of protests and rallies in Rochester since the public learned of the March death of Daniel Prude.

Prude is the 41-year-old Chicago man who was visiting his brother in Rochester. His brother, Joe Prude, called police because Daniel was having a mental health crisis, and they eventually found him running naked on Jefferson Avenue. Officers pinned him to the pavement, he lost consciousness and died a week later. The death was ruled a homicide.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP)  Two protesters accused of attacking police officers during a demonstration over the suffocation death of Daniel Prude face federal charges, prosecutors said Wednesday.