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The police officers involved in the suffocation death of Daniel Prude were following their training when they put a "spit hood" over his head and pinned him to the ground for two minutes before noticing wasn't breathing, the head of the officers' union said Friday.
"To me, it looks like they were watching the training in front of them and doing step by step what the training says to do," said Michael Mazzeo, president of the Locust Club. "If there's a problem with that, let's change it."
The police officers were in a difficult position trying to help someone who appeared to have mental illness, and they didn't intend to cause Prude harm, he said. The hood, he said, was standard equipment intended to protect officers from germs.