New York prison guards beat a handcuffed inmate hours before he died, a newly released video has revealed.
Bodycam footage of the incident shows three correction officers repeatedly kicking and punching Robert Brooks before leaving the prisoner unconscious in an examination room at Marcy Correctional Facility in Upstate New York.
In the video, which was taken on Dec 9, Brooks is repeatedly struck in the face and groin as he sits handcuffed to a medical examination table while other prison staff watch the assault take place.
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At one point, one of the officers uses a shoe to strike Brooks in the stomach while another yanks him up by his neck in a choke hold before dropping him back on the table.
After the 30-minute attack, Brooks was left stripped down to his underwear, lying motionless and bloodied on an examination table.
The 43-year-old, who was serving time for assault, was pronounced dead at a hospital the next day.
Footage of the “shocking and disturbing” attack was made public on Friday by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“I do not take lightly the release of this video especially in the middle of the holiday season,” she said, as she offered her “deepest condolences” to Brooks’ family.
Ms James said her office was investigating the use of force that led to Brooks’ death, but did not say whether any of the officers would be charged with crimes.
Thirteen correctional officers and a nurse implicated in the attack will be fired, according to New York governor Kathy Hochul, who said she was “outraged and horrified” by videos of the “senseless killing”.
The final results of Brooks’ autopsy are still pending, but preliminary findings cite “asphyxia due to compression of the neck” as a potential cause of death, court filings show.
State corrections commissioner, Daniel Martuscello III, said he was “deeply repulsed and nauseated” by the footage and has so far suspended those involved without pay, while another employee resigned.
“There is no excuse and no rationalisation for a vulgar, inhumane act that senselessly took a life,” Mr Martuscello told the New York Post, adding that the state’s department of corrections and community supervision was carrying out an internal probe.
The department issued a directive in the wake of Brooks’ death requiring staff to use body cameras in all interactions with prisoners.
With the release of the videos, “members of the public can now view for themselves the horrific and extreme nature of the deadly attack on Robert L. Brooks,” a lawyer for his family, Elizabeth Mazur, said.
“As viewers can see, Mr Brooks was fatally, violently beaten by a group of officers whose job was to keep him safe,” Ms 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.”
