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On Saturday (Dec 22), New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, has ordered the dismissal of over a dozen prison staffers after a fatal beating of an inmate earlier this month.
Robert Brooks was pronounced dead on December 10 at Wynn Hospital in Utica. Brooks, 43, had been serving a 12-year prison sentence since 2017 for first-degree assault, prison documents show.
NEW: Body-cam footage released showing New York correctional officers smirking as they "fatally beat" a man in handcuffs.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 27, 2024
Sickening.
43-year-old Robert Brooks passed away on Dec 10 at Wynn Hospital in Utica, NY.
The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations… pic.twitter.com/BwLPnOS9fH
New body-cam footage released on Friday (Dec 27) shows multiple prison officers brutally punching, choking, and kicking the handcuffed inmate. The footage cuts to an unresponsive Brooks, who is stripped and lying on a medical examination table.
While, it's not clear what sparked this incident, all officers and staffers involved are in the process of being dismissed. It is not yet clear if charges will be pressed against those involved.
Body-cam footage from eight officers has been released by the New York State Attorney General Office. The interaction between the officers and Brooks has no audio because the body cameras had not been activated by the officers wearing them, and so the audio was not recorded.
According to the Associated Press, the final results of Brooks’ autopsy are still pending. Preliminary finding from court filings suggest "“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."
Apparenlty, Brooks had arrived at the Marcy Correctional Facility only hours before the beating too place. He had been transferred from another nerby state prison.
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