Video of inmate’s fatal beating shows him handcuffed as correctional officers punch and kick him

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — Body-worn camera footage released Friday shows correctional officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York punching and kicking a handcuffed inmate in a fatal beating that is now under investigation by the New York attorney general.

Robert Brooks was pronounced dead on December 10 at Wynn Hospital in Utica, according to Attorney General Letitia James. Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year prison sentence since 2017 for first-degree assault, prison documents show.

CNN has reviewed the footage, parts of which show surrounding officers kicking and punching Brooks, who has his hands handcuffed behind his back in a medical examination room. Brooks’ face appears bloody in some of the footage.

At one point, an officer appears to shove something in Brooks’ mouth before repeatedly hitting him in the face. Another officer then punches Brooks in the groin before using a shoe to strike him.

The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations previously announced it had opened an investigation into Brooks’ death.

“As Attorney General, you have my word that we will use every possible tool available to us to investigate this death thoroughly and swiftly,” James said Friday.

She said four of the officers involved were wearing body cameras but did not activate them, so the cameras did not record audio of the incident.

“These videos are shocking and disturbing, and I advise all to take appropriate care before choosing to watch them,” she said.

Brooks had been transferred from Mohawk Correctional Facility, another Oneida County prison, to Marcy Correctional Facility on December 9, according to James.

Parts of the footage show Brooks, face down with his hands handcuffed behind his back, being carried into the building by three officers. It’s unclear what led up to Brooks being brought into the exam room.

Video shows officers punching and kicking Brooks

The attorney general released eight videos from body-worn cameras from four different officers. Throughout most of the footage, Brooks is handcuffed with his hands behind his back as officers punch and kick him in the face, chest and groin.

Footage shows Brooks handcuffed and face down being carried into the facility, with two officers holding his arms and one holding his feet. They take him into a medical examination room.

One officer appears to shove a white material in Brooks’ mouth as another officer holds Brooks by the throat. The officer then repeatedly punches Brooks in the face, and another officer begins punching him in the groin. One officer is seen striking Brooks with a shoe.

Two corrections officers then pull Brooks to a seated upright position at the edge of an exam table – one officer holding Brooks by his neck – before laying him flat on his back. Another officer then puts his foot on Brooks’ lower torso and one of the first officers who punched Brooks hits him again in the chest.

The officer who struck Brooks with his leg is then seen restraining Brooks’ legs before punching him in the buttocks approximately three times.

He and another officer appear to yank Brooks up to the edge of the exam table once again, his face visibly bloody. Brooks appears to speak before an officer punches him in the chest again.

Two officers then grab Brooks by the collar of his shirt and shoulder area, picking him off the table before forcing him to the back right corner of the room and holding him up against a wall as other officers look on.

Minutes later, video shows one of the officers to first punch Brooks give him a sternum rub – used to try and assess if a person is conscious.

The video then shows Brooks no longer handcuffed, lying on the table, motionless in his underwear.

Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, told CNN it seemed possible Brooks sustained a fatal spinal cord injury when officers lifted him from the table by his shirt. Authorities have not released a cause of death for Brooks.

“My jaw hit the floor when I saw it,” Faust said, “because it looked like just enough force in the right direction to do real damage.” He noted that although Brooks was previously alert, he does not seem to move or react to stimuli after officers pick him up.

The way that officers lifted Brooks hyperextended his neck, Faust explained. This could have “caused a devastating spinal cord injury, the result of which would be immediate or almost immediate paralysis of the body, including the respiratory muscles,” he said.

Brooks appeared to be compliant and was not posing a threat when officers were using force against him, which is considered excessive by standard police protocol, one law enforcement expert told CNN.

“Just because someone is handcuffed does not mean they cannot be subjected to force. However – and this is a big however – if someone is no longer a direct threat to the officers and is complying with instructions, it would certainly be excessive to strike them, choke them, et cetera,” said Bryce Peterson, adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a senior research scientist at the Center for Justice Research and Innovation.

Peterson said potential excessive use of force is evident in the video “when officers are cleaning blood off Mr. Brooks’ face and then begin to strike him – and continue to strike and grab him for the next 30 seconds.”

A US Supreme Court ruling in 1992 sets the standard for police use of force, said Peterson, who was part of a team that later did the first evaluation of a correctional body-camera program at a jail in Loudoun County, Virginia. The ruling established force is “only justified when it is used to maintain or establish discipline,” he said.

Peterson said it’s notable, from the footage, that Brooks was already injured when he first appears in the video and the investigation will need to determine whether his injuries were “from a prior use of force by correctional officers, or an inmate-on-inmate altercation.”

‘Institutional change must follow’

New York officials quickly condemned the fatal beating. Governor Kathy Hochul said Friday she was “outraged and horrified after seeing footage of the senseless killing of Robert Brooks.” The governor previously said in a Saturday statement she had directed an internal review of Brooks’ death and told the state correction department to fire 14 workers involved.

“The vast majority of correction officers do extraordinary work under difficult circumstances, and we are all grateful for their service,” Hochul said. “But we have no tolerance for individuals who cross the line, break the law and engage in unnecessary violence or targeted abuse.”

The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision also denounced the attack. Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III said in a statement shared with CNN the video left him “feeling deeply repulsed and nauseated” and that he would implement “institutional change” at the department.

“It is not enough to simply condemn this horrific act and then go back to business,” Martuscello said. “Institutional change must follow, and we have already begun to take proactive steps to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again within our facilities.”

The commissioner said he had instituted a daily audit to ensure body cameras are being properly activated at each facility and taken steps to ensure “senior leaders” are present for all shifts in each facility.

The Marcy Correctional Facility is a medium-security state prison located in Oneida County, around 52 miles east of Syracuse.

The Brooks family has reviewed the body camera footage of the beating, Elizabeth Mazur, an attorney for the family, said in a statement to CNN.

“As expected, watching the horrific and violent final moments of Robert’s life was devastating for his loved ones, and will be disturbing to anyone who views the video following its release by the Attorney General’s Office,” the statement said. “We will not rest until we have secured justice for Robert’s memory, and safety for the prisoners at Marcy Correctional Facility.”

In a Sunday statement, NYSCOPBA, the union that represents New York correctional officers, described the footage of the beating as “incomprehensible to say the least” and “certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”

This story has been updated with new information.

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CNN’s Caroll Alvarado, Emma Tucker and Tanika Gray contributed to this report.