The death of a handcuffed and shackled inmate who was attacked by officers at a New York State prison has been declared a homicide after an autopsy report, authorities said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has called for swift criminal charges against those responsible for Robert Brooks’s “horrific, shocking” murder.
Bodycam footage previously released showed prison officers repeatedly striking Mr Brooks, 43, in the face and groin while he sits handcuffed on an examination table at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York last December.
He was pronounced dead one day after the incident took place.
The videos also appear to show a prison officer placing something in Mr Brooks’s mouth before striking him, as well as a separate officer hitting him in the stomach with a shoe.
At one point, an officer lifts Mr Brooks by the neck before forcefully putting him on the examination table.
Preliminary examinations determined the cause of death was “asphyxia due to compression of the neck”.
The Onondaga County Medical Examiner ruled Mr Brooks’s death was a homicide, the New York governor said in a statement.
The incident drew protesters outside the district attorney’s office in Syracuse this week. They demanded murder charges against the correction officers.
Hochul ordered the firing of the 13 officers and a prison nurse who were involved in the assault following an internal review after the incident.
“Those responsible for Mr Brooks’ death must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law, and I recognize the need to build an airtight prosecution to ensure those individuals are brought to justice,” Hochul said in a Wednesday statement.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James also opened an investigation into Mr Brooks’s death.
Mr Brooks was serving a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault, according to the Associated Press. He had been transferred to Marcy from the nearby Mohawk Correctional Facility on the same day as the incident.
It is unclear what prompted staff to take him to the prison’s medical facility in the first place.
Elizabeth Mazur, a lawyer representing the Brooks family, previously said in a statement that the videos show “the horrific and extreme nature of the deadly attack”.
“He deserved to live, and everyone else living in Marcy Correctional Facility deserves to know they do not have to live in fear of violence at the hands of prison staff,” Ms Mazur said.
