Bodycam footage shows New York inmate beaten by officers before death

On By Littum

Bodycam footage released Friday shows corrections officers at a New York prison facility handcuffing an inmate who died the following day. Robert Brooks, 43, was pronounced dead at a hospital on December 10, the day after the incident at Marcy Correctional Facility in New York.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is currently investigating the case, released the footage from the body cameras on December 9, Friday.

After an internal review, New York Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the firing of 13 officers and a prison nurse for their alleged involvement in the assault, BBC reported. Hochul noted that she was “outraged and horrified” by the videos of Brooks’ “sense killing.”

Letitia James’ office has opened an investigation, while the union representing state prison workers has called the footage “incomprehensible.”

Brutal assault

In the footage, the officers punched Brooks in the face and groin; the handcuffed prisoner sat on a medical examination table.

At one point, one officer used a shoe to hit Brooks in the stomach, another lifted him by the neck and dropped him back onto the table. Soon after, they removed his shirt and trousers and he was left motionless on his back.

The viral videos, which have no sound because the body cameras were not activated by the officers wearing them, also show an officer placing something inside the prisoner’s mouth before punching him.

Although final autopsy results are currently awaited, the preliminary results of a medical examination have indicated “concerns of asphyxiation due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being caused by the actions of another”.

According to Associated PressBrooks served a 12-year prison sentence since 2017 for first-degree assault. Shockingly, he arrived at the Marcy Correctional Facility just hours before the incident occurred. He was transferred from another nearby state prison, officials said.