6 Corrections Officers Charged With Murder in New York Inmate’s Death
The New York Times
A special prosecutor on Thursday unsealed the charges in the killing of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility in December.
Six New York corrections officers were charged with murder and other crimes on Thursday in the killing of a state prison inmate, whom they are accused of beating to death while he was handcuffed in an assault captured by officers’ body-worn cameras.
Three other corrections officers were charged with manslaughter for failing to halt the fatal attack on the man, Robert Brooks. A ninth officer was charged with evidence tampering for cleaning the area where the beating occurred in an effort to remove bloodstains.
The charges were announced in Oneida County Court by the special prosecutor in the case, William J. Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney.
Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a statement expressing approval for the murder counts before the charges were unsealed. “The brutal attack on Mr. Brooks was sickening, and I immediately moved to terminate the employment of those involved,” she said. “Now, the perpetrators have been rightfully charged with murder and State Police are making arrests.”
Mr. Brooks’s son, Robert Brooks Jr., said the murder counts were appropriate but inadequate given what had happened to his father, who was attacked late on Dec. 9 at the Marcy Correctional Facility near Utica and declared dead early the next day.
“Nothing can bring him back to us,” Robert Brooks Jr., 27, said in a statement. “Nothing can return to us what these men have taken away. Still, these indictments are a necessary and important step toward accountability. These men killed my father, on camera. All the world could see what happened.”
