Photo: Getty Images
Body camera footage showing the fatal beating of a handcuffed Black man in a New York prison has been released, the Associated Press reports.
Robert Brooks, a 43-year-old inmate at the Marcy Correctional Facility, was pronounced dead at a hospital on December 10, just one day after he was assaulted by correctional officers, video shows.
On Friday (December 27), New York Attorney General Letitia James released footage of the brutal beating amid an investigation into the officers' use of force. Video shows correctional officers repeatedly punching Brooks in the face and groin as he was handcuffed on a medical examination table.
One officer used a shoe to hit Brooks in the stomach while another grabbed him by the neck and slammed him on the table. The officers removed Brooks' clothes as he appeared to lay motionless and bloodied on the table.
“These videos are shocking and disturbing and I advise all to take appropriate care before choosing to watch them,” James said in a statement.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she was "outraged and horrified" by footage of the "senseless killing." Hochul noted that thirteen correctional officers and a nurse allegedly involved in the attack will be fired.
James said her office had launched an investigation into Brooks' death, but didn't make it clear whether any of the officers would face criminal charges. Brooks, who was serving time for first-degree assault, had arrived at the Marcy Correctional Facility only hours before the beating following a transfer from another state prison.
Preliminary findings from a medical examination indicate “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,” court filings state.
In the wake of the video's release, Elizabeth Mazur, a lawyer for Brooks' family, said “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.”
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