New York correctional officers repeatedly struck handcuffed inmate, picked him up by his neck, new video shows

Correctional officers ua New York prison repeatedly punched a handcuffed inmate, kicked him, picked him up by the neck and dropped him before he later died, a newly released video shows.

New York State Attorney Letitia James released body camera footage Friday of the Dec. 9 attack on Robert Brooks, 43, who died the morning after the incident.

The state attorney’s office is investigating the use of force by officers that led to Brooks’ death.

Brooks was pronounced dead at a hospital a day after the attack at Marcy Correctional Facility, a state prison in Oneida County.

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He has been in prison since 2017 and served a 12-year sentence for first degree assault. Brooks arrived at the Marcy Correctional Facility just hours before the attack, having been 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 Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, including corrections officers and a nurse involved in the attack. The governor said she was “outraged and horrified” by the videos of the “senseless murder.”

The video shows prison officers repeatedly punching Brooks in the face and groin as he sits handcuffed on an examination table.

One officer is seen using a shoe to kick Brooks in the stomach while another picks him up by the neck and throws him back onto the table. The officers then removed Brooks’ shirt and pants as he lay motionless and bleeding from the beating.

“These videos are shocking and disturbing and I advise everyone to do their due diligence before choosing to watch them,” James said.

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Final results of Brooks’ autopsy are still pending.

The preliminary findings of the medical examiner show “concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, and that the death was the result of the actions of another.”

The videos do not contain sound because officers wearing body cameras did not activate them. After the attack, the Department of Corrections issued an order requiring staff to use body cameras in any staff interaction with inmates.

Brooks’ family attorney, Elizabeth Mazur, said the release of the video means “members of the public can now see for themselves the horrific and extreme nature of the fatal attack on Robert L. Brooks.”

“As viewers can see, Mr. Brooks was fatally, violently beaten by a group of police officers whose job it was to protect him,” Mazur said. “He deserved to live, and everyone else who lives at Marcy Correctional Facility deserves to know that they don’t have to live in fear of violence at the hands of prison staff.”

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, a union for state correctional officershe said in a statement that what is seen on the video is “incomprehensible to say the least and certainly does not reflect the great work that the vast majority of our membership does 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 such behavior.”

The Correctional Association of New York, a prison watchdog group, said it documented reports of brutality and racism during an oversight visit two years ago at the Marcy Correctional Facility.

The video of the attack on Brooks “is sickening and horrific, but not surprising” given previous revelations, said the organization’s executive director Jennifer Scaife, adding that the state’s prison system must “address the systemic problems that allow such brutality to flourish.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.