Who Was Robert Brooks? Details emerge of fatal beating at Marcy Correctional Facility

UPDATED: Dec 29, 2024 01:25 IST

The shocking brutality videos of African-American Robert Brooks being thrashed mercilessly to death by a correctional facility’s staff this December has shocked the nation yet again.

Robert Brooks, the 43-year-old incarcerated man, was fatally beaten up by correctional officers at Marcy Correctional Facility’s medical centre in New York earlier this month.

Brooks had been serving a 12-year prison sentence since 2017 for first-degree assault. He had arrived at the Marcy Correctional Facility only hours before the beating, after being transferred from another nearby State prison. Marcy is about 323 kilometers northwest of New York City, between the cities of Rome and Utica.

In the footage released by the State attorney general on Friday, correctional officers are seen repeatedly punching Brooks in the face and groin as he sits handcuffed on a medical examination table. However, the videos do not include audio because the body cameras had not been activated by the officers wearing them.

Attorney General Letitia James called the video “shocking and disturbing” and has launched an investigation which may lead to criminal charges against the officers involved. “These videos are shocking and disturbing, and I advise all to take appropriate care before choosing to watch them,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

Here’s what we know so far about the incident that has sparked outrage in the US:

The assault occurred on December 10, 2024. Footage also shows that at one point, he was choked and violently restrained on an infirmary table. Brooks was later seen motionless, bleeding, and stripped to his undergarments. Medical staff nearby did not intervene. He was declared dead shortly after being transported to a hospital in Utica.

Autopsy findings suggest asphyxia due to neck compression as the probable cause, implicating the officers' actions. The final report is still to come.

Governor Kathy Hochul has directed the termination process for 14 prison employees, including 13 officers and a nurse, implicated in the assault.

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,” 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.”

Brooks’ family described the videos as “horrific” and “devastating.” Their attorney said, “Robert deserved to live, and no one should face such violence in a correctional facility.”