The death of a handcuffed inmate who was beaten unconscious by upstate prison guards in a heinous attack caught on body camera footage was ruled a homicide, an attorney for the victim’s family confirmed Wednesday.
Robert Brooks, 43, was repeatedly punched, kicked and stomped on by three correction officers in an examination room at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County on Dec. 9, 2024, according to the sickening recordings.
He died the next day from compression of the neck and multiple blunt-impact injuries, the Onondaga County medical examiner ruled last week.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called for those involved in the brutal attack and responsible for Brooks’ death to be terminated and criminally charged.
“The murder of Robert Brooks was horrific, shocking all New Yorkers to our very core,” Hochul said in a statement.
“Those responsible for Mr. Brooks’ death must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law, and I recognize the need to build an airtight prosecution to ensure those individuals are brought to justice. This reprehensible act of violence demands the full force of our justice system — the family of Mr. Brooks deserves no further delays.”
The body camera video, released by New York Attorney General Letitia James, shows three correction officers viciously beating Brooks while he was handcuffed behind his back and offering no apparent resistance.
Several other officers could be seen standing by doing nothing while the attack was carried out and even after Brooks lost consciousness.
Brooks was taken to Wynn Hospital in Utica and pronounced dead the next morning.
“I think what this does is rule out any argument that there was some other cause of death other than what we saw on the video,” family attorney Stephen Schwarz said.
The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision launched an internal probe and placed 13 correctional officers and two nurses on unpaid suspension. One officer resigned.
Hochul also removed the prison’s interim head, Daniel Madbury, and appointed Bennie Thorpe as superintendent of the Oneida County facility.
Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick was appointed special prosecutor last month and is handling the investigation into the savage beating. A grand jury is expected to hear evidence on the case.
The Brooks family filed a lawsuit last month against those implicated in the attack, as well as the head of the upstate facility at the time and the commissioner of DOCCS.
