Correctional officers at a New York jail repeatedly punched a handcuffed inmate, hit him with a shoe, lifted him by the neck and dropped him earlier than he later died, newly launched video exhibits.
New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James launched physique digicam footage on Friday of the Dec. 9 assault on Robert Brooks, 43, who died the morning after the incident.
The legal professional basic’s workplace is investigating the officers’ use of pressure that led to Brooks’ dying.
Brooks was pronounced lifeless at a hospital the day after the assault on the Marcy Correctional Facility, a state jail in Oneida County.
NEW YORK GOV. HOCHUL ORDERS PRISON STAFFERS INVOLVED IN INMATE’S DEADLY BEATING TO BE FIRED
Bodycam footage of correction officers beating a handcuffed man, Robert Brooks, 43, on the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, N.Y., on Dec. 9, 2024. (New York State Legal professional Normal’s Workplace through AP)
He had been in jail since 2017 and was serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault. Brooks had arrived on the Marcy Correctional Facility solely hours earlier than the assault, after he was transferred from a close-by state jail.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, ordered the firing of greater than a dozen staff on the state’s Division of Corrections and Group Supervision, together with correctional officers and a nurse concerned within the assault. The governor mentioned she was “outraged and horrified” by movies of the “senseless killing.”
The footage exhibits correctional officers repeatedly punching Brooks within the face and groin whereas he sits handcuffed on a medical examination desk.
One officer is seen utilizing a shoe to strike Brooks within the abdomen as one other lifts him up by his neck and drops him again on the desk. The officers then eliminated Brooks’ shirt and pants as he lay immobile 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 mentioned.
LOUISIANA PRISONS ROUTINELY HOLD INMATES PAST THEIR RELEASE DATE, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ARGUES
New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James speaks throughout a press convention, Sept. 21, 2022, in New York. (AP Picture/Brittainy Newman, File)
The ultimate outcomes of Brooks’ post-mortem stay pending.
Preliminary findings from a medical examination present “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 movies don’t comprise audio as a result of the officers carrying physique cameras had not activated them. The corrections division issued a directive following the assault requiring employees to make use of physique cameras in each employees interplay with inmates.
A lawyer for Brooks’ household, Elizabeth Mazur, mentioned the discharge of the movies 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 mentioned. “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 Affiliation, the union for state correctional officers, mentioned in a press release that what was noticed within 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.”
Robert Brooks, 43, was pronounced lifeless at a hospital the day after the assault on the Marcy Correctional Facility. (iStock)
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“This incident not only endangers our entire membership but undermines the integrity of our profession,” the union mentioned. “We cannot and will not condone this behavior.”
The Correctional Affiliation of New York, a jail oversight group, mentioned it had documented experiences of brutality and racism throughout a monitoring go to two years in the past on the Marcy Correctional Facility.
The footage of the assault towards Brooks “is sickening and appalling, but not surprising” given the earlier findings, the group’s govt director, Jennifer Scaife, mentioned, including that the state jail system must “address the systemic issues that allow such brutality to flourish.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
