DOCTOR DETAILS HORRIFIC INJURIES ROBERT BROOKS SUFFERED AS JUDGE TAKES GUNS FROM ONE OF THE ALLEGED KILLER GUARDS
'MULTIPLE SOFT TISSUE HEMORRHAGE OF THE MUSCLES OF THE ANTERIOR RIGHT AND LEFT SIDES OF THE NECK, HEMORRHAGE OVERLAPPING THE THYROID CARTILAGE'
Sgt. Glenn Trombly, alleged leader of the “beat- up squad” at the Marcy Correctional Facility, supervising his squad while it killed Robert Brooks. Photo credit: bodyt camera video courtest of the New York Attorney General’s office.
Jan. 1, 2025
The prison guard beat-up squad that killed Robert Brooks beat his face, beat his body, broke his nose, bloodied his genitals and choked him to death.
"Brooks had suffered multiple bruises on the face and extremities, fracture of the nasal bone," Dr. Katya Merkulova, the doctor who autopsied Brooks' body Dec. 11, reported.
Brooks also suffered "multiple soft tissue hemorrhage of the muscles of the anterior right and left sides of the neck, hemorrhage overlapping the thyroid cartilage," according to Dr. Merkulova. Finally, the beating also caused "hemorrhage of the genital area soft tissue, the penis and both testes."
Dr. Merkulova's preliminary autopsy findings were included in a Red Flag petition to disarm Correction Officer David J. Kingsley II, one of the prison guards "involved" in Brooks death, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul and State Police.
"Dr. Merkulova reported concerns for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as cause of death, as well as the death being due to the actions of another," according to the State Trooper who interviewed her. "The final cause and manner of death are pending at this time."
Final autopsy results remain outstanding, Melanie Drotar, the Director of Public Health Communications for the Onondaga County Health Department, told The Free Lance on Monday.
Brooks, a 43-year-old Black-American, was beaten and choked to death by an all-white gang of guards at Marcy, video made public last Friday by the Attorney General shows. The Brooks video is worse than the videos that captured George Floyd and Eric Garner being killed by police.
Both Garner's 2014 killing and Floyd's 2020 killing were transformative events in the Black Lives Matter movement.
The petition to disarm Kingsley was filed Dec. 24 in State Supreme Court in Jefferson County, where Kingsley lives. It was filed under New York's Red Flag gun law, which allows a person to be disarmed if its proven there's "probable cause to believe that respondent is likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others."
On Dec. 24, Supreme Court justice William F. Ramseier issued a court order finding "Kingsley, a NYS Corrections Officer, participated in the physical assault of Robert L. Brooks, a NYS DOCCS inmate, which resulted in the death of Brooks."
On Dec. 24, Supreme Court justice William F. Ramseier issued a court order finding "Kingsley, a NYS Corrections Officer, participated in the physical assault of Robert L. Brooks, a NYS DOCCS inmate, which resulted in the death of Brooks."
Based on that finding, Justice Ramseier also found "probable cause to believe" Kingsley "is likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to others" and ordered Kingsely temporarily disarmed on an emergency basis pending a final hearing.
Justice Ramseier's decision is the first judicial confirmation that Brooks was, in fact, killed by guards at Marcy.
Attempts to reach Kingsley by telephone were not successful and a voicemail invitation left for him to comment was not returned. Court records do not show he is represented by a lawyer.
State Troopers backed by lawyers from Attorney General Letitia James office filed the petition to disarm Kingsely. They also filed petitions in State Supreme Court in Oneida County to disarm three additional Correction Officers allegedly “involved,” according to the Governor, in Brooks’ killing: Nicholas Anzalone, Robert Kessler and Mathew Galliher.
State Supreme Court Justice Peter M. Rayhill denied the emergency requests to immediately disarm the officers Dec. 24 and scheduled hearings for Jan. 7.
On Tuesday, The Free Lance exclusively reported that no one at Marcy called 9-1-1 for the mortally injured Brooks and that he was transported to a hospital in Utica via a private ambulance company which refuses to disclose the run times for the trip.
Gov. Kathy Hochul visited Marcy on Monday. She said she "stood in the room where Robert Brooks was killed" and it made her “heartbroken” and “sickened.”
The governor installed a new superintendent and said she was "implementing a number of new policies" across the state's entire prison system. These include $400 million worth of new cameras to cover every state prison in New York, more misconduct investigators and $2 million for prison watch-dog Correctional Association of New York.
“Mr. Brooks and his family did not deserve this," Hochul said. "The system failed Mr. Brooks and I will not be satisfied until there has been significant culture change.“
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