Five 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.
“The brutal attack on Mr. Brooks was sickening, and I immediately moved to terminate the employment of those involved,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement before the indictment was formally unsealed. “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 charges were appropriate but inadequate given what had happened to his father.
“Nothing can bring him back to us,” he 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.”
The five officers charged with second-degree murder, Nicholas Anzalone, David Kingsley, Anthony Farina, Christopher Walrath and Mathew Galliher, were expected to make initial court appearances Thursday afternoon.
All five were also charged with manslaughter. Officer Galliher was also charged with gang assault, and Officer Anzalone was charged with filing a false report. The name of a sixth officer charged with murder and other crimes was redacted from the indictment.
The three officers charged solely with manslaughter, Michael Mashaw, Michael Fisher and David Walters, were also expected to appear in court on Thursday, as was the officer charged with trying to clean up the bloodstains, Nicholas Gentile.
Mr. Brooks was declared dead early on Dec. 10, hours after he was assaulted at the Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York. At the time of the attack, he was serving a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2017 to first-degree assault in the stabbing of a former girlfriend, court documents and prison records show.
Ms. Hochul said two weeks ago that an autopsy had determined that Mr. Brooks’s death was a homicide. She did not share additional details at the time, but the indictment charging the officers said he had suffered injuries to his head, neck, hyoid bone, thyroid cartilage, torso, liver, spleen and testicles “as well as having his air passages restricted and choking on his own blood, thereby resulting in his death.”
The attack was filmed by body-worn cameras belonging to four officers, including Officers Galliher and Fisher. Footage captured by the cameras was made public by Letitia James, the state attorney general, who described it as “shocking and disturbing.”
The videos do not include sound; the officers’ cameras were running but the devices do not record audio unless activated by the wearer to film an encounter.
The footage shows one officer kicking Mr. Brooks, whose face is bloodied, and then forcing him onto his back on an infirmary examination table while another officer punches Mr. Brooks in the upper body.
The videos also show officers yanking Mr. Brooks up and dragging him to the back of the room, where they press him against a window. He sinks down, and the officers hoist him back up and push him against the window again.
The footage does not show Mr. Brooks doing anything to provoke the attack or to incite the officers to continue it. Several officers appear to be the main aggressors, while others walk in and out of the room, chatting among themselves and watching their colleagues treat Mr. Brooks like a rag doll. No one tries to stop the beating.
Mr. Brooks had been serving his sentence at Mohawk Correctional Facility, a short drive from the Marcy prison. Both are medium-security facilities. He was moved the day he was attacked and arrived at the Marcy prison just before the fatal beating began.
A corrections department investigator testified at a court hearing last month that Mr. Brooks was moved for “his safety” after being involved in altercations with other Mohawk prisoners, according to a transcript of the proceeding.
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