Correctional officers at a New York prison repeatedly punched a handcuffed inmate, hit him with a shoe, lifted him by the neck and dropped him before he later died, newly released video shows.
New York Attorney General Letitia James released body camera footage on Friday of the Dec. 9 assault on Robert Brooks, 43, who died the morning after the incident.
The attorney general's office is investigating the officers' use of force that led to Brooks' death.
Brooks was pronounced dead at a hospital the day after the assault at the Marcy Correctional Facility, a state prison in Oneida County.
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He had been in prison since 2017 and was serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault. Brooks had arrived at the Marcy Correctional Facility only hours before the assault, after he was transferred from a nearby state prison.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, ordered the firing of more than a dozen employees at the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, including correctional officers and a nurse involved in the attack. The governor said she was "outraged and horrified" by videos of the "senseless killing."
The footage shows correctional officers repeatedly punching Brooks in the face and groin while he sits handcuffed on a medical examination table.
One officer is seen using a shoe to strike Brooks in the stomach as another lifts him up by his neck and drops him back on the table. The officers then removed Brooks' shirt and pants as he lay motionless and bloodied from the beating.
"These videos are shocking and disturbing, and I advise all to take appropriate care before choosing to watch them," James said.
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The final results of Brooks' autopsy remain pending.
Preliminary findings from a medical examination show "concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another."
The videos do not contain audio because the officers wearing body cameras had not activated them. The corrections department issued a directive following the assault requiring staff to use body cameras in every staff interaction with inmates.
A lawyer for Brooks' family, Elizabeth Mazur, said the release of the videos means "members of the public can now view for themselves the horrific and extreme nature of the deadly attack on Robert L. Brooks."
"As viewers can see, Mr. Brooks was fatally, violently beaten by a group of officers whose job was to keep him safe," Mazur 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."
The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union for state correctional officers, said in a statement that what was observed in the footage "is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day."
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"This incident not only endangers our entire membership but undermines the integrity of our profession," the union said. "We cannot and will not condone this behavior."
The Correctional Association of New York, a prison oversight group, said it had documented reports of brutality and racism during a monitoring visit two years ago at the Marcy Correctional Facility.
The footage of the assault against Brooks "is sickening and appalling, but not surprising" given the previous findings, the organization’s executive director, Jennifer Scaife, said, adding that the state prison system needs to "address the systemic issues that allow such brutality to flourish."
