NEW YORK: Six US prison workers accused of beating to death a handcuffed Black inmate were indicted Thursday on second-degree murder charges, in a case that has sparked outrage.
Robert Brooks’s death at New York’s Marcy Correctional Facility in December 2024 was caught on the officers’ bodycams.
The footage showed several officers restraining a man, whose hands were cuffed behind him for at least part of the attack, with one uniformed officer kicking him during a struggle.
As the inmate sat up, visibly wounded, an officer put on a surgical glove and grabbed him again by the collar and, with the help of a colleague, slammed him against a wall.
The footage was released by New York Attorney General Letitia James who called the scenes “shocking and disturbing.”
Three others were charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to prevent the death of Brooks, who was serving a 12-year sentence for assault at Marcy Prison, located near the Canadian border.
A 10th prison worker was charged with allegedly cleaning up the scene and attempting to conceal evidence.
The accused acted with “depraved indifference to human life, recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby caused the death of Robert Brooks,” the indictment issued by special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had given the order to “immediately begin the termination process for 14 individuals who were involved in the fatal attack on an incarcerated individual at Marcy Correctional Facility.”
“This action comes after I directed an internal review of the circumstances that lead to this individual’s death,” she said.
The United States is regularly rocked by violence committed by law enforcement officers.
In 2020, the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who was suffocated under a police officer’s knee, sparked a huge wave of anti-racism protests across the country.