New York Attorney General Letitia James released a video showing 14 male prison guards and a female nurse beating a handcuffed man to death at Marcy Correctional Facility in Marcy, Oneida County. 

The deceased inmate, Robert Brooks, 43, died on December 10 after he was beaten on his chest with fists and kicked in his groin area and on his head by Sgts. Michael Masaw and Glenn Trombly; Officers Matthew Galliher, Nicholas Anzalone, Nicholas Kieffer, David Kingsley, Robert Kessler, Michael Fisher, David Fisher, Christopher Walrath, Michael Along, Shea Shoff, David Waters and Kyle Dashnaw, a nurse. 

Another guard, Anthony Frania, who participated in the beating, resigned from the department before an investigation of the incident was initiated.

Brooks was transferred from Mohawk Correctional Facility to Marcy Correctional Facility on December 9. Both prisons are located in Oneida County. 

Brooks, who was handcuffed with his hands behind his back, was then taken to a medical examination room where the events captured in the video took place. He was then transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the early morning hours of December 10.

The footage taken from some of the guards’ body-worn cameras does not show Brooks provoking or physically responding to the barrage of kicks and punches delivered to him.

Four of the officers involved were wearing body cameras but did not activate them, which is why there was no audio on the video footage, according to James. At least two corrections guards and a sergeant have been previously involved in beating prisoners according to the Sunday New York Times.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has directed that the 14 guards and the nurse at the state prison be fired after it was determined that they beat Brooks to death. 

Hochul said her decision to initiate the firing process of 14 correction officers and a prison nurse came after an “internal review” of the incident, which includes a video that prosecutors are reviewing.

“We have no tolerance for individuals who cross the line, break the law, and engage in unnecessary violence or targeted abuse,” Hochul said in a 21 December statement. “I am committed to accountability for all involved.”

Preliminary findings of an autopsy by the Onondaga County Medical Examiner’s Office show “concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to a court filing.

Brooks was more than halfway through his 12-year prison sentence for first-degree assault, the Associated Press reported. 

In 2016, Brooks pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in connection with the stabbing of his girlfriend Diana Rivera in April of that year. Brooks has a mother who was informed of his death by force on December 15.

The New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union said on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday: “The horrifying culture of officer brutality + abuse at Marcy has been well documented for years — yet nothing was done. 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. Robert Brooks should still be alive today. His family and loved ones deserve justice and accountability.”

Oneida’s county seat is Utica. The county’s name was chosen in honor of the Oneida, one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois League or Haudenosaunee, which had long occupied this territory at the time of European encounter and colonization.