Newly launched video of a deadly New York jail beating reveals correctional officers repeatedly pummeling a handcuffed inmate, hanging him within the chest with a shoe, and lifting him by the neck and dropping him.
Physique-worn digital camera footage of the Dec. 9 assault on Robert Brooks was made public Friday by the state’s lawyer basic, who’s investigating the officers’ use of drive.
Brooks, 43, was pronounced useless at a hospital the morning after the assault on the Marcy Correctional Facility, a state jail in Oneida County.
13 correctional officers and a nurse implicated within the assault will face termination, in accordance with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who mentioned she was “outraged and horrified” by movies of the “senseless killing.”
The footage made public Friday reveals correctional officers repeatedly punching Brooks within the face and groin as he sits handcuffed on a medical examination desk.
As one of many officers makes use of a shoe to strike Brooks within the abdomen, one other yanks him up by his neck and drops him again on the desk. The officers then take away the person’s shirt and pants as he lies immobile and bloodied on his again.
“These videos are shocking and disturbing and I advise all to take appropriate care before choosing to watch them,” New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James mentioned.
The ultimate outcomes of Brooks’ post-mortem are nonetheless pending.
Preliminary findings from a medical examination point out “concern for asphyxia attributable to compression of the neck as the reason for dying, in addition to the dying being attributable to actions of one other,” in accordance with courtroom filings.
The movies don’t embrace audio as a result of the physique cameras had not been activated by the officers carrying them.
James mentioned her workplace was investigating the usage of drive that led to Brooks’ dying, however didn’t say whether or not any of the officers could be charged with crimes.
With the discharge of the movies, “members of the general public can now view for themselves the horrific and excessive nature of the lethal assault on Robert L. Brooks,” a lawyer for his household, Elizabeth Mazur, mentioned.
“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 stay, and everybody else dwelling in Marcy Correctional Facility deserves to know they don’t have to stay in concern of violence by the hands of jail workers.”
The union for state correctional officers, which considered footage of the assault earlier than its public launch, mentioned in an announcement: “What we witnessed 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.”
“This incident not solely endangers our total membership however undermines the integrity of our occupation. We can’t and won’t condone this conduct,” mentioned the union, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Affiliation.
Brooks had been serving a 12-year jail sentence for first-degree assault since 2017. He had arrived on the Marcy Correctional Facility solely hours earlier than the beating, after being transferred from one other close by state jail, officers mentioned.
Marcy is about 200 miles northwest of New York Metropolis, between the cities of Rome and Utica.
The Correctional Affiliation of New York, a jail oversight group, mentioned that they had documented studies of pervasive brutality and racism contained in the Marcy Correctional Facility throughout a monitoring go to two years in the past.
Tina Luongo, a chief lawyer at The Authorized Assist Society in New York Metropolis, known as for “complete transparency” on state correctional workers’s use of drive and a “full accounting of this tragedy.”
“Like everyone who has seen this video, we are horrified, angered, and deeply saddened,” said Luongo, calling the assault on Brooks “a grotesque display of inhumanity that is utterly appalling.”
“Too usually, the violence that happens behind jail partitions stays hidden or turns into normalized within the public eye as soon as the headlines fade,” mentioned Luongo, whose group gives public defender providers and has purchasers in state prisons.
