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 reveals.
New York Lawyer Common 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 power that led to Brooks’ loss of life.
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 Lawyer Common’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 workers on the state’s Division of Corrections and Neighborhood Supervision, together with correctional officers and a nurse concerned within the assault. The governor stated she was “outraged and horrified” by movies of the “mindless killing.”
The footage reveals 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 movies are surprising and disturbing, and I counsel all to take applicable care earlier than selecting to observe them,” James stated.
LOUISIANA PRISONS ROUTINELY HOLD INMATES PAST THEIR RELEASE DATE, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ARGUES
New York Lawyer Common Letitia James speaks throughout a press convention, Sept. 21, 2022, in New York. Â (AP Picture/Brittainy Newman, File)
The ultimate outcomes of Brooks’ post-mortem stay pending.
Preliminary findings from a medical examination present “concern for asphyxia as a consequence of compression of the neck as the reason for loss of life, in addition to the loss of life being as a consequence of actions of one other.”
The movies don’t comprise audio as a result of the officers sporting physique cameras had not activated them. The corrections division issued a directive following the assault requiring workers to make use of physique cameras in each workers interplay with inmates.
A lawyer for Brooks’ household, Elizabeth Mazur, stated the discharge of the movies means “members of the general public can now view for themselves the horrific and excessive nature of the lethal assault on Robert L. Brooks.”
“As viewers can see, Mr. Brooks was fatally, violently overwhelmed by a gaggle of officers whose job was to maintain him secure,” Mazur stated. “He deserved to reside, and everybody else residing in Marcy Correctional Facility deserves to know they don’t have to reside in worry of violence by the hands of jail workers.”
The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Affiliation, the union for state correctional officers, stated in an announcement that what was noticed within the footage “is meaningless to say the least and is actually not reflective of the good work that the overwhelming majority of our membership conducts every single 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 solely endangers our complete membership however undermines the integrity of our occupation,” the union stated. “We can’t and won’t condone this habits.”
The Correctional Affiliation of New York, a jail oversight group, stated it had documented studies 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, however not shocking” given the earlier findings, the group’s government director, Jennifer Scaife, stated, including that the state jail system must “tackle the systemic points that permit such brutality to flourish.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
