In the last days of 2024, a shocking video has gone viral of a man being beaten to death in a New York jail- and the guards appearing to laugh as they did it.
According to an NBC News account, the video is from December 9. However, it didn’t begin to circulate on social media until several weeks later when it was released by the state attorney general’s office. The incident took place at Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County.
One version of the viral video stated that the officers could be seen smiling during the beating.
Newly released body cam footage shows New York correctional officers smiling as they beat a man in handcuffs to death pic.twitter.com/9Y3DR7HRsl
— HOT SPOT (@HotSpot__Media) December 28, 2024
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The man, 43-year-old Robert Brooks, was punched and kicked while handcuffed to a hospital bed.
The death has prompted a state investigation, with state Attorney General Letitia James calling the video “shocking and disturbing.”
This is the American Industrial Prison Complex. If you are under the impression this is the exception as opposed to the rule, I suggest you pay close attention to the behavior of the Correction Officers that quite literally beat the life out of shackled inmate Robert Brooks on… pic.twitter.com/cu7t24Vv4B
— Defense Diaries (@defense_diaries) December 27, 2024
“I do not take lightly the release of this video, especially in the middle of the holiday season,” James — also known for a successful civil jury verdict against the Trump Organization — said in a statement.
The killing took place on the day Brooks was transferred from another jail in the same county. He died the day after the beating. Brooks was convicted in 2017 on a charge of “first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend,” and was serving a 12-year sentence.
Per NBC News, “Brooks can be seen in the videos with his hands cuffed behind his back. In one video, he is sitting up as an officer presses his foot down on him. He is then punched by two officers… At another point, he is forcefully yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and held up above the ground, his face visibly bloodied.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, per the story, has ordered the state’s Department of Corrections to “begin the process” of firing 14 people involved in the fatal beating, including “correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse.” All officers involved have been suspended without pay, except one who has resigned.
“Watching the video evidence of Robert Brooks’ life being taken left me feeling deeply repulsed and nauseated,” Martuscello said. “There is no excuse and no rationalization for a vulgar, inhumane act that senselessly took a life. This type of behavior cannot be normalized, and I will not allow it to be within DOCCS.”
The story also reveals why the officers present did not activate their body cameras; they still recorded in “standby mode.”
The union that represents the prison guards, The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, issued a statement following the release of the footage.
“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,” going on to call the beating the “opposite of everything NYSCOPBA and its membership stand for.”
A number of high-profile individuals, including rap impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs, accused United Healthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione, and convicted crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried, are currently jailed in the New York prison system, although none are in the facility where Brooks was killed.
Featured image via screengrab
