It shows 43-year-old Robert Brooks, who was Black, leaving a prison transport van and entering an exam room at Marcy Correctional with prison staff, all of whom appear to be white.
“During the incident, he was handcuffed with his hands behind his back," explained AG Letitia James during a live, video statement to reporters before releasing the footage.
"These videos are shocking and disturbing and I advise all to take appropriate care before choosing to watch them," James said.
The videos were captured by four body cameras worn by correction officers. According to James, none of them had activated their body cams, so there’s no sound in the videos.
But they show multiple officers beating Brooks. At times, the men are punching Brooks in the stomach, in the groin, and in the head.
Prison staff go in and out of the exam room throughout the incident. Brooks was stripped and eventually, his body appeared to go limp.
He was taken to a hospital in Utica, where he was pronounced dead.
New York State’s prison commissioner Daniel Martuscello issued a statement after the video footage was released.
"Watching the video evidence of Robert Brook’s life being taken left me feeling deeply repulsed and nauseated," said Martuscello. "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."
"This was a killing,” Martuscello wrote, “and people will be held accountable.”
One of the correction officers resigned after the incident. Governor Hochul ordered the other thirteen involved in the incident to be fired.
By law, the state attorney general’s office is required to investigate every case in which a state law enforcement officer may have caused the death of a civilian.
"As Attorney General you have my word that we will use every possible tool available to us to investigate this death thoroughly and swiftly," James said on Friday.
In his statement, Martuscello said prison staff are now required to activate their body cameras anytime they engage with incarcerated people, which would mean both video and audio are captured.
According to the Correctional Association of New York, a prison watchdog group, only about a quarter of New York state prison facilities have body-worn cameras in operation. The group urged state officials to install cameras and implement body cams at every prison in New York.
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