New York correctional officers repeatedly handcuffed an inmate and picked him up by the neck, new video shows

Correctional officers at a New York prison repeatedly punched a handcuffed inmate, hit him with a shoe, lifted him by the neck and dropped him before he later died, a newly released video shows.

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

The Attorney General’s office is investigating the officers’ use of force that led to Brooks’ death.

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

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Bodycam footage of correctional officers handcuffing a man, Robert Brooks, 43, at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, NY, on December 9, 2024. (New York State Attorney General’s Office via AP)

He had been in prison since 2017, serving a 12-year sentence for first degree assault. Brooks had arrived at Marcy Correctional Facility just hours before the assault after being transferred from a nearby state prison.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, ordered the firing of more than a dozen employees of the state’s Department of Crime and Community Supervision, including corrections officers and a nurse involved in the attack. The governor said she was “outraged and horrified” by videos of the “senseless killing”.

The footage shows detectives repeatedly punching Brooks in the face and groin while he is handcuffed on a medical examination table.

One officer is seen using a shoe to hit Brooks in the stomach, while another lifts him up by the neck and drops him back onto the table. Officers then removed Brooks’ shirt and pants as he lay motionless and bloody from the beating.

“These videos are shocking and disturbing and I advise everyone to take appropriate care before choosing to view them,” James said.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference on September 21, 2022 in New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)

The final results of Brooks’ autopsy remain pending.

Preliminary findings from a medical examiner show “concerns of asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, and that the death is due to the actions of another.”

The videos do not contain sound because the officers wearing body cameras had not activated them. The Department of Corrections issued a directive after the assault requiring staff to use body cameras in every staff interaction with inmates.

A lawyer for Brooks’ family, Elizabeth Mazur, said the release of the videos 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 officers whose job it was to keep him safe,” Mazur said. “He deserved to live, and everyone else who lives in the Marcy Correctional Facility deserves to know that they do not have to live in fear of violence at the hands of prison staff.”

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union for state correctional officers, said in a statement that what was observed in the footage “is incomprehensible, to say the least, and certainly does not reflect the great work that the vast majority of our membership does every day .”

Robert Brooks, 43, was pronounced dead at a hospital the day after the assault at Marcy Correctional Facility. (iStock)

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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 tolerate this behavior.”

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

The footage of the assault on Brooks “is sickening and appalling, but not surprising” given the past findings, said the organization’s executive director, Jennifer Scaife, adding that the state prison system needs to “address the systemic problems that allowing such brutality to flourish.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.