Body camera footage documenting the fatal beating of Robert Brooks at the hands of New York state corrections officers has triggered an outpouring of rage and condemnations – and analysis from experts who said the video shows a misuse of force by officers.
Brooks, a man incarcerated at the Marcy Correctional Facility in central New York, was pronounced dead in the early hours of December 10 at a Utica hospital. Earlier in the day, he had been transferred from Mohawk Correctional Facility to Marcy and beaten by corrections officers in a medical examination room, while handcuffed with his hands behind his back. Body camera footage shows officers repeatedly punching and kicking Brooks in the face, chest, and groin until he stops moving.
The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations has opened an investigation into Brooks’ death. Attorney General Letitia James pledged Friday to “use every possible tool available to us to investigate this death thoroughly and swiftly” and described the footage of the beating as “shocking and disturbing.”
It is difficult to draw conclusions about the situation because the video footage does not capture any audio or show what led up to the violence immediately preceding Brooks’ death. But in the opinion of several experts who reviewed the video, the footage showcases an excessive use of force by officers as well as a failure by other officers to intervene.
“I can’t believe the excessive force that these corrections officers used,” Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD Detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CNN Friday.
Here’s more on what experts said about the video.
‘Inhumane’ and ‘unnecessary’ use of force
Several law enforcement experts who spoke to CNN criticized the corrections officers’ use of force shown in the footage.
Brooks, 43, seemed to be compliant with officers and not posing a threat as officers beat him, making the use of force potentially excessive under the law, according to Bryce Peterson, an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a senior research scientist at the Center for Justice Research and Innovation.
“Just because someone is handcuffed does not mean they cannot be subjected to force,” Peterson told CNN Friday. “However – and this is a big however – if someone is no longer a direct threat to the officers and is complying with instructions, it would certainly be excessive to strike them, choke them, etc.”
From the body camera footage, it is unclear what led up to the beating or why Brooks was taken into a medical examination room by officers as the footage first shows Brooks face down and handcuffed as three officers carry him into the facility.
A 1992 US Supreme Court ruling, Hudson v. McMillan, set the standard for police use of force, said Peterson, who was part of a team performing the first evaluation of a corrections body-camera program at a jail in Loudoun County, Virginia. The ruling established force is “only justified when it is used to maintain or establish discipline,” Peterson said.
Peterson said potential excessive use of force is “particularly” evident “when officers are cleaning blood off Mr. Brooks’ face and then begin to strike him and continue to strike and grab him for the next 30 seconds.”
Prosecutors could consider a range of charges, said Peterson, similar to the range of state and federal murder charges against four officers in the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which included a charge of murder against the lead officer, as well as abetting manslaughter, failing to stop unreasonable force and deprivation of civil rights for the other officers at the scene.
Alcazar, the retired NYPD Detective, told CNN Friday the footage was “horrible to watch.” The use of force “was inhumane. It was unnecessary,” he said.
He added there appeared to be several sergeants in the room who failed to step in and stop corrections officers from beating Brooks.
“They should have stepped in and stopped them immediately,” Alcazar said.
Officers who did not actively participate in the beating but failed to intervene could also be held legally accountable, he explained.
Alcazar noted in the video, the officers appear “pretty comfortable doing this, especially with a supervisor there.”
Similarly, Jeremy Saland, a former federal prosecutor and criminal lawyer, described feeling “disgust” at the video.
“Law enforcement, whether correction officers on the inside behind the jail wall, or police officers on the outside, have the responsibility to protect the public,” he told CNN Friday.
The attorney general said Friday four of the corrections officers involved did not turn on their body-worn cameras, which were operating on “standby” mode and recording video without audio. Saland said it represented a “dereliction of duty” for the officers.
The failure to turn on their cameras could indicate “an intentional act,” he added, with officers “withholding or holding back that audio to protect themselves.”
None of the officers or their representatives have commented since the video came to light. However, the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the union which typically speaks on behalf of prison employees, issued a statement describing the footage as “incomprehensible to say the least” and “certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day.”
At least three of the officers involved in the beating were previously accused of assault, according to court documents obtained by CNN.
Robert Brooks is seen after being beaten by corrections officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility. – NYS Attorney General
Enough force to ‘do real damage’
Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, told CNN Friday his “jaw dropped” when he saw the way two officers grabbed Brooks by his shirt and shoulders before forcing him to the back right corner of the room and holding him up against a wall as other officers looked on.
“It looked like just enough force in the right direction to do real damage,” the physician said. He noted although Brooks was previously alert and responding as officers struck him, he does not seem to move or react to stimuli after officers pick him up, looking “slumped to the ground.”
It is possible Brooks sustained a deadly spinal cord injury when officers grabbed him, hyperextending his neck, according to Faust. This could have caused “immediate or almost immediate paralysis of the body, including the respiratory muscles,” he said. An official cause of death has not been determined but the medical examiner’s preliminary findings show concern of asphyxiation due to neck compressions, according to CNN affiliate Spectrum News.
The video shows a few minutes later, one of the officers appears to give him a sternum rub, which Faust said is used to try and assess if a person is conscious. Brooks does not seem to respond to the sternum rub.
At the point that staff realized Brooks was unconscious, it should have triggered officers to immediately assess his airway, breathing, and circulation, and to provide CPR or other lifesaving measures if needed, he explained. Staff do not appear to perform CPR in any of the videos released by the attorney general, although one man seems to take defibrillator pads from the wall. The video ends before the pads may have been used.
Additionally, Faust said, if the officers’ attack had injured Brooks’ spinal cord, officers should have immediately worked to stabilize his spine, holding his neck in place and then assessing his vital signs, according to Faust.
“I’m very worried that he sustained a spinal cord injury in that video,” Faust said.
Calls for change
State officials rushed to denounce the fatal beating. Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement she was “outraged and horrified” by the video of Brooks’ “senseless killing.” She added she ordered an investigation into Brooks’ death and directed the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to fire 14 people involved.
Federal officials are also looking into the case. “The FBI Albany Field Office and the Department of Justice are reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Robert L. Brooks to determine the appropriate federal response,” the FBI said in a statement to CNN.
Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Commissioner Daniel Martuscello III said in his own statement the video left him feeling “deeply repulsed and nauseated” and he would implement “institutional change” at the department.
And Julia Salazar, a New York state senator, called for the closing of Marcy Correctional Facility, where she said “previous acts of unconscionable violence against incarcerated individuals” had been reported.
The New York affiliate of the ACLU also pointed to a “culture of officer brutality + abuse at Marcy” in a post on X. “It shouldn’t take a cold-blooded killing captured on film to be a wake-up call to our leaders that the culture of officer brutality in NY prisons must be stopped,” wrote the organization.
A 2022 report about Marcy from the Correctional Association of New York, which provides independent oversight of prisons in the state, notes multiple problems at the facility, including allegations of “physical assaults” by staff on inmates and “pervasive allegations of racial discrimination.”
Around 80% of inmates surveyed in the report said they had seen or been subjected to verbal, physical, or sexual abuse by staff. Inmates reported experiencing seemingly random assaults from the staff as well as targeted attacks meted out as punishment, the report found.
The report recommended the Office of Special Investigations and Inspector General investigate the “widespread claims of abuse at Marcy.”
CNN has reached out to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision for comment on the 2022 report.
CNN’s Caroll Alvarado and Tanika Gray contributed to this report.
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