Bodycam footage shows prison guards beating handcuffed inmate before his death | US News

New York’s attorney general has released bodycam footage showing prison officers fatally beating an inmate.

Prison officers at Marcy Correctional Facility in New York repeatedly punched and kicked 43-year-old Robert Brooks as he lay handcuffed on a hospital bed.

He died in hospital on December 10, the day after the attack.

The incident sparked outrage from political leaders and was condemned as “incomprehensible” by the prison officers union NBC, partner newsroom of Sky News.

The case is now being investigated by Attorney General Letitia James, who called the videos “shocking and disturbing” at a virtual press conference.

In the video, Mr. Brooks is handcuffed as he is carried into the infirmary by several prison guards.

They lay him on the bed and begin punching and kicking him repeatedly.

He is propped up so that his bloody face can be seen on the camera, then he is dragged out of bed by the collar of his shirt and pushed against a window.

One of the fourteen workers involved in the incident has resigned and the remainder have been suspended without pay pending the completion of their dismissal process. Staff include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse.

The officers had not activated their body cameras, but they were still on and recording in standby mode with no sound during the attack.

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Because of the incident, all officers are now required to activate their cameras when interacting directly with prisoners.

Mr. Brooks’ family thanked officials in a statement this week for taking action “to hold officers accountable.”

“We cannot understand how this could even have happened,” the family said. “No one should have to lose a family member this way.”

The attack occurred before 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 9 in a medical exam room after Mr. Brooks was transferred from Mohawk Correctional Facility to Marcy Correctional Facility.

An autopsy found that “preliminary results indicate that asphyxia due to compression of the neck is the cause of death and that the death was due to the actions of another person,” according to a state corrections department investigative report obtained by an affiliate of Sky News’ partner newsroom WKTV in Utica.

Mr. Brooks had been in prison since 2017 on a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend.

Officials would not say why he was transferred to Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison.

Last year, an independent prison oversight group called The Correctional Association of New York released a report on Marcy Correctional Facility.

Complaints of “rampant” physical abuse by staff were noted, with 80% of detainees saying they had seen or experienced abuse and nearly 70% reporting racial discrimination or bias.

In response to the video, the union representing prison workers said: “What we have seen is incomprehensible to say the least and certainly does not reflect the great work that the vast majority of our members do every day.”

It turns out the “opposite of everything (the union) and its members stand for” was added.