The FBI has confirmed that it is investigating the fatal beating of a state prison inmate in upstate New York. "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," FBI Media Coordinator Sarah Ruane said Monday, per the Utica Observer Dispatch. Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered officials to begin the process of firing 14 prison staffers after disturbing body cam footage showing corrections officers punching, kicking, and choking the handcuffed Black inmate was released.
"Like all New Yorkers, I was outraged and horrified after seeing footage of the senseless killing of Robert Brooks," Hochul said. The death of the 43-year-old inmate is also being investigated by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office released the video, Axios reports. Brooks was pronounced dead in a Utica hospital the day after the Dec. 9 beating in a medical exam room at Marcy Correctional Facility. He was more than halfway through a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault.
Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, tells CNN that his "jaw dropped" when he saw the way two officers grabbed Brooks and held him against a wall. He believes Brooks may have suffered a fatal spinal cord injury. Three of the prison staffers were previously named in lawsuits over alleged assaults on inmates, including one that left a man permanently disfigured, the New York Times reports. The union that represents prison employees condemned the footage as "incomprehensible to say the least." The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association said it was "certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day." (More inmate deaths stories.)
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