Shocking footage reveals the moment that a group of prison guards in New York beat a handcuffed man a day before his death.
Robert Brooks, 43, was pronounced dead at a hospital the morning after the assault at the Marcy Correctional Facility, where he was incarcerated.
Footage made public on Friday shows correctional officers repeatedly punching Mr Brooks in the face and groin as he sits handcuffed on a medical examination table.
One of the officers is seen using a shoe to strike Brooks in the stomach, while another yanks him by his neck and drops him on the table.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she was “outraged and horrified” by the footage.
On Friday, she confirmed that the thirteen officers and a nurse implicated in the attack would lose their jobs.
The final results of Mr Brooks’ autopsy are still pending.
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,” according to court filings.
A lawyer for Mr Brooks’ family, Elizabeth Mazur, said that 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,” 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.”
The union for state correctional officers, which viewed footage of the assault before its public release, said in a statement: “What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”
Mr Brooks had been serving a 12-year prison sentence for first-degree assault since 2017.
He was taken to Wynn Hospital in Utica and declared dead from “asphyxia due to compression of the neck,” in the early hours of December 10, according to Syracuse.com.
State Corrections Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III said: “This was a killing, and people will be held accountable.
“These individuals are not representative of the culture of DOCCS (New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision) nor anything that DOCCS stands for.”
