Corrections officers punched and kicked a handcuffed inmate in the groin and chest, leading to his d£@th at a prison in central New York this month, video footage released publicly on Friday shows.
The footage was recorded by body cameras worn by four of the officers. It was made public by Letitia James, the state attorney general, as part of her office’s investigation into the d£@th of the man, Robert Brooks.
The videos show one corrections officer using a booted foot to k! Ck Mr Brooks, whose face is bl00died, and then force him onto his back on an infirmary examination table while another officer punches Mr Brooks in the upper body.
Ms James said that the eight videos her office released depicted “shocking and disturbing” behaviour.
“I do not take lightly the release of this video, especially in the middle of the holiday season,” she said during an online presentation. “But as the attorney general, I release these videos because I have a responsibility and duty to provide the Brooks family, their loved ones and all New Yorkers with transparency and accountability.”
Ms. James’s investigation could result in criminal charges for some or all of those implicated in the assault, as could inquiries by the State Police and the corrections department’s Office of Special Investigations.
Mr. Brooks was Black and all the officers in the video appear to be white.
The videos were released two weeks after the attack and several days after Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was moving to fire the 14 prison workers implicated in the attack.
The footage was previously described as “horrific” by members of Mr Brooks’s family and “incomprehensible” by the prison officers’ union.
The body-camera videos show officers punching and k!cking Mr Brooks as he lies on an infirmary table with his hands cuffed behind his back. At one point, two officers yank him up and drag him to the back of the room, where they press him against a window. He sinks down, and the officers hoist him back up and push him against the window again.
D!sturbing video shows moment Black inmate Robert Brooks was b�@ten to d�@th by White prison officers
A short time later, Mr Brooks sinks down again, and the officers lift his body, which appears limp, into the air.
Mr Brooks is next seen back on the examination table, motionless and bleeding. Officers str!p him to his undergarments and rub his chest as two medical workers stand nearby.
The footage does not show Mr Brooks doing anything to provoke the attack or to incite the officers to continue it. Several officers appear to be the main aggressors, while others walk in and out of the room, chatting among themselves and watching their colleagues treat Mr. Brooks like a rag doll. No one tries to halt the attack.
Mr. Brooks, 43, was declared d£@d at a Utica hospital early on Dec. 10, officials have said. The Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s office is conducting an autopsy and will determine the cause and manner of his death.
The autopsy had not been completed at the time the video was released, according to a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office.
D!sturbing video shows moment Black inmate Robert Brooks was b�@ten to d�@th by White prison officers
Brooks and his son
The Onondaga County district attorney’s office will disclose the cause and manner of de@th once they have been determined, said the spokeswoman, Mariah Senecal-Reilly.
In court filings this week, State Police investigators said that “preliminary findings” from the medical examiner’s office showed “concern for @sphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of de@th, as well as the de@th being due to actions of another.”
The videos showed that at several points, officers appeared to ch0k£ Mr Brooks and forcefully picked him up and pushed him down by his throat.
The attack and d£@th came to light on Dec. 15, when the state’s corrections commissioner, Daniel F. Martuscello III, said that an unnamed inmate had d!ed after a “use of force” by staff members at the prison in Marcy, N.Y., about 50 miles east of Syracuse.
Mr Brooks was identified as the victim the next day. He had been serving a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty in Monroe County in 2017 to first-degree assault in the st@bbing of a former girlfriend, according to state prison records and local news reports.
The corrections employees implicated in the attack — 13 officers and a nurse — were placed on administrative leave amid the investigations by Ms. James’s office, the State Police and the corrections department’s Office of Special Investigations.
Elizabeth Mazur, a lawyer for members of Mr. Brooks’s family, said then that watching “the horrific and violent final moments of Robert’s life” had been “devastating.”
After the footage’s release, Ms. Mazur said the public would see “the extreme nature of the d£@dly attack on Robert L. Brooks.”
“Mr Brooks was f@tally, v!olently b£@ten by a group of officers whose job was to keep him safe,” she said. “He deserved to live, and everyone else living in Marcy Correctional Facility deserves to know they do not have to live in fear of violence at the hands of prison staff.”
Watch the video below.
I know it’s late on a Friday at the end of the year, but I’m posting the video here so it’s easy for all to see. It’s simply some of the most depraved behavior you will ever see from officers of the law.
Firing isn’t enough. They beat Robert Brooks to death. pic.twitter.com/GsuSdOjcHG
— Shabazz Stuart (@ShabazzStuart) December 28, 2024