The son of an inmate who died after a prolonged beating by New York prison guards said in a federal lawsuit Wednesday that his father’s attackers “systematically and casually beat him to death” in a correctional system that tolerates violence.
Robert L. Brooks Sr., 43, died on Dec. 10, a day after the beating at Marcy Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Body camera video shows officers repeatedly punching and kicking Brooks, whose hands were cuffed behind his back. Officers struck him in the chest with a shoe and lifted him by the neck and dropped him while employees who were watching the beating appeared indifferent.
