WHAT BODY CAMERA VIDEO TELLS US ABOUT THE KILLING OF ROBERT BROOKS BY PRISON GUARDS
AT LEAST 13 GUARDS TORTURED ROBERT BROOKS TO DEATH, THE VIDEO SHOWS
Top row left to right: Sgt. Glenn Trombly, Sgt. Michael Mashaw, CO David J. Kingsley II, CO Nicholas Anzalone, CO Anthony Farina; middle row, left to right: CO Matthew Galliher, CO Robert T. Kessler, CO Kingsley choking Robert Brooks, CO Christopher Walrath, CO David Walters; bottom row, left to right: CO Shea Schoff, CO Michael Fisher, CO Nicholas Kieffer, CO Michael Along and Nurse Kyle Dashnaw. All are currently suspended without pay. Photo credit: body camera video published by New York Attorney General’s office.
VISUAL INVESTIGATION
Jan. 10, 2025
Attorney General Letitia James published video captured by four different body cameras worn by four different Correction Officers showing the killing of Robert Brooks at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. Since the videos were recovered via a back-up mechanism instead of intentionally recorded, there is no sound. That makes a careful visual analysis crucial to understanding what the videos actually captured.
The Free Lance closely reviewed the videos so you don't have too. Applying what I learned about prison operations from serving 13 years in New York's prisons and then covering the criminal justice system as a journalist after my parole for almost 20 years, here's what the gruesome videos show.
Sgt. Glenn Trombly's video is the first to start. He walks out of Marcy's sergeant's office with Correction Officer Anthony Farina. It's dark outside. They get into a van. Farina drives. The timestamp on the video shows 21:14 while the digital clock on the dashboard radio shows 9:13, so we know the timestamp is roughly accurate.
Sgt. Trombly and CO Farina pullup to an entrance/exit of the prison called a "sallyport." Brooks is on the ground, handcuffed behind his back. He's surrounded by COs Robert Kessler, Nicholas Anzalone, David J. Kingsley II, Nicholas Kieffer and Sgt. Michael Mashaw. Kieffer shakes a can of pepperspray, which you do before you intend to use it, not after.
Anzalone and Kessler stand the handcuffed Brooks up, lift his handcuffed arms up behind his back so he's bent forward, and walk him toward the infirmary.
Sgt. Trombly and CO Farina follow, but not close enough so that we see Brooks. By the time Brooks reaches the infirmary, he's no longer walking on his own power. Anzalone and Kessler are carrying him by his handcuffed arms while Kingsley holds his feet in the air.
CO Matthew Galliher's video starts at 21:16, according to its timestamp. A clock on the wall shows 9:16, confirming the rough accuracy of the timestamp. COs Galliher, Kingsley, Michael Along and David Walters are in a large room just inside the entrance to the prison's infirmary.
They're watching a militaristic Tom Cruise movie on a wall-mounted TV: the "Edge of Tomorrow." A science fiction action thriller about a soldier given the power of resurrection that allows him to win an otherwise unwinnable battle against a technologically-advanced alien invasion force.
At 21:17, Kingsley, Along and Walters step outside the front door to the infirmary. They appear to be looking toward the sallyport. They came back inside, but go back outside at 21:20. When Galliher steps outside, Walters and Along are there but Kingsley is not.
The third video is from CO Along. At 21:22, Along's camera captures Kessler, Anzalone and Kingsley carrying Brooks through the frontdoor of the infirmary. Brooks' head is hanging. He appears unconscious. He's not trying to look up, to protect his face, like a person being carried by police facedown near the ground ordinarily would.
A reasonable inference to draw, that could be but not necesarily is true, is that the guards knocked Brooks out on the way to the infirmary—since he was walking under his own power when he left the Sallyport.
Walters follows behind Kessler, Anzalone and Kingsley as they carry Brooks down a hallway into a treatment room. Along follows behind Walters. His video captures nurse Kyle Dashnaw in the hallway walking toward the room's entrance with rubber gloves on. Another nurse, Abedin Mehmedovic, stands behind Dashnaw putting gloves on. They look ready to treat Brooks.
Before Walters enters the room, Walters stops the nurses from entering with a hand gesture. Because Along is directly behind Walters, we can't see exactly what the gesture was. But we see his right hand raise up and Dashnaw stop in his tracks before turning around so we know it was some kind of "stop" signal.
Another reasonable inference to draw is that Walters knows what the guards plan to do to Brooks. They don't want the nurses in the way, so Walters orders them to stay out of the room.
Sgt. Mashaw and CO Kieffer arrive next, Along's video shows. Farina and Galliher arrive after them. The group stands there, staring into the room. Sgt. Trombly arrives at 21:23, according to the timestamp on his camera, which is slightly out-of-synch with the others.
Sgt. Trombly's video shows Brooks conscious and alert, seated on the edge of the examination table. His hands remain handcuffed behind his back. Kessler and Anzalone stand on either side of him; Kingsley stands in front of him.
They are waiting—for the order to attack Brooks. In other words, they appear to have waited for Sgt. Trombly to arrive.
That's consistent with The Free Lance's exclusive report that Sgt. Trombly was the head of Marcy's beat-up squad.
CO Christopher Walrath enters the room behind Sgt. Trombly at 21:23:52 on Trombly's video. Walrath appears to say something to Brooks that takes about 10 seconds. He leaves less than 30 seconds later. He doesn't appear to hit Brooks, but Trombly's body-worn camera does not capture him the entire time he's inside the room so we don't know for sure.
Given what the guards do to Brooks next, it wouldn't be surprising to learn whatever started the confrontation between Brooks and the guards, it started with Walrath. Sgt. Trombly's beat-up squad gave him "first dibs"—the chance to strike the first blow.
Whether Walrath did strike Brooks or not, his mere presence let Brooks know the beat-down he was about to get was coming from him—or so it appears to me, based on my experience.
Once Walrath leaves, Farina enters putting leather gloves on. That's also consistent with The Free Lance's report that Farina was a member of the squad since at least 2020.
At 21:25:17 on Galliher's camera, Kingsley holds Brooks by the neck while Farina gags Brooks with a white rag. It appears Farina attempts to shove the rag inside Brooks mouth, video from Galliher's camera shows.
Brooks bites Farina's fingers. We know, because later at 21:25:31 on Fisher's camera, Farina grimaces as he removes his glove and examines his fingers for damage.
In response to being bitten by Brooks, Farina punches Brooks repeatedly in the face and Anzalone punches him repeatedly in the groin.
Brooks appears unconscious as Kingsley leans his forward, lifting his back up off the table. Kingsley then picks Brooks up by his neck and slams him seated back down. Kingsley lifts Brooks up by his neck and slams him down at least four times, before laying Brooks back down on the table, limp.
Professional use of force trainers generally warn against using chokeholds of any kind unless your life is threatened because it often results in damage to a victim's neck or spine. Sometimes its fatal.
This is also precisely the kind of situation deficiently trained and insufficiently supervised police are likely to use excessive force in because they are reacting to resistance by the victim. Adrenaline and man's natural, aggressive instinct impel police officers facing resistance by subjects to use all available force instead of measured, proportionate force.
As Kingsley lays Brooks back down, Farina stomps on Brooks' groin.
Kingsley, Anzalone and Galliher have their hands near Brooks' throat, but you can't see exactly what they're doing, on any of the videos.
Farina and Walrath, who briefly re-enters the room, now hold Brooks lower legs and appear to twist his body while they both punch Brooks' lower body and groin repeatedly.
At one point, Walrath shows situational awareness and gently taps Sgt. Mashaw to move back so he can punch Brooks harder.
Kieffer enters the room for less than a minute, but at 21:26:07 on CO Michael Fisher's camera, Sgt. Trombly can be seen pointing first at Kieffer then at the door, ordering him out—confirming Sgt. Trombly's position as leader of Marcy's beat-up squad.
Galliher brings leg shackles and puts them on Brooks' ankles.
Brooks appears unconscious, as Anzalone gives him a sternum rub, used to revive unconscious subjects.
Meanwhile in the hallway outside the room, COs Along, Shea Schoff, Kessler and Fisher watch through the open door as Brooks is tortured to death.
At 21:26:45, Fisher's camera captures what appears to be Kessler explaining to Shea and Fisher something about Brooks. He gestures to his face, to the room where Brooks is being killed and he steps back describing what appears to be a physical confrontation.
Toward the end of his explanation, Kessler puts his hand on a door jam, indicating some kind of physical feature had a role in the encounter.
As Kessler talks, Walrath exits the room and appears to thank Kessler at 21:27 in Fisher's video. Walrath pats Kessler on the back and speaks directly to him. As he goes to leave, Walrath smacks Kessler lightly on the ass, and Kessler smacks Walrath in return on his back.
Back inside the room, Kingsley's hand can be seen clearly for the first time: grabbing the front of Brooks' throat at 21:27 on Trombly's video.
Kingsley keeps his hand on Brooks' throat for another 25 seconds before he and Anzalone sit Brooks up again. Brooks is falling in-and-out of consciousness. Anzalone punches him in the mid-section.
Sgt. Trombly directs them to do something by pointing his hand, and Anzalone puts on rubber gloves.
Next, Anzalone and Kingsley stand Brooks up and carry him to a corner of the examination room where there is a window covered in metal mesh. They pin Brooks face-first to the concrete window ledge. They could be using it as a fulcrum to choke him.
When they let go of him, Brooks falls toward the floor until they lift him up again. It appears Brooks is unconscious or paralyzed. His blood is streaked on the white window shade.
Sgt. Trombly steps outside the room for a few minutes at 21:30. Kessler enters as he leaves. Kessler gets down on his knees and pins Brooks' feet to the floor while Anzalone and Kingsley appear to press Brooks' neck against the window ledge, Fisher's video shows at 21:30:17.
Brooks keeps falling to the ground. Anzalone heaves him up into the air 30 seconds later. At 21:31 on Fisher's video, the guards finally let the nurses into the room. But, instead of immediately treating Brooks, they fish around in a cabinet while Kessler, Kingsley and Anzalone stand over a dead or dying Brooks.
While Sgts. Trombly and Mashaw laugh and joke in the background, nurses Dashnaw and Mehmedovic finally put their hands on Brooks. They feel for a pulse at 21:35 in Galliher's video, but don't seem to find one or find only a light one. Dashnaw retrieves an ambu bag and attempts to resuscitate Brooks.
At 21:41:41 in Galliher's video, Mehmedovic retrieves a defibrillator, a device used to revive people when their hearts stop. They attach the device to Brooks, when Galliher's video ends. It's almost 9:45pm, Dec. 9.
Prison officials said Brooks was declared dead at Wynn hospital in nearby Utica, a 10 minute drive away, the next day, Dec. 10.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said she ordered DOCCS to begin the long process of firing Sgts. Trombly and Mashaw, COs Anzalone, Kingsley, Walrath, Kieffer, Kessler, Fisher, Along, Schoff, Galliher and Walters along with nurse Dashnaw, the governor said in a Dec. 21 news release.
Previous attempts to reach the 14 for comments were either declined or not successful.
A month after the guards killed Brooks, no one has been arrested.
New York Attorney General Letitia James was conducting the investigation into Brooks death, but she handed off the criminal inquiry because she was already defending Sgt. Trombly and CO Farina from a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging they used excessive and sadistic force against another prisoner at Marcy in 2020, among others.
Onondaga County District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick has been assigned special prosecutor in the case. His office has not responded to repeated requests for an update on the status of his investigation.
For tips or corrections, The Free Lance can be reached at jasonbnicholas@gmail.com or, if you prefer, thefreelancenews@proton.me.