{"id":212717,"date":"2026-04-28T15:36:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/212717\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T15:36:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T15:36:43","slug":"news-12-brooklyn-police-involved-death-of-marcus-burks-ruled-homicide-family-and-attorney-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/212717\/","title":{"rendered":"News 12 | Brooklyn | Police Involved Death Of Marcus Burks Ruled Homicide Family And Attorney Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The police-involved death of Marcus Burks, the man seen on body camera video repeatedly saying \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d while being restrained by officers, has been ruled a homicide, according to his family and attorney.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Speaking at a Newburgh City Council meeting Monday night, civil rights attorney Michael Sussman said the Orange County Medical Examiner made that determination following an autopsy.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Sussman said the ruling was based on three factors: prone restraint, the use of pepper spray and the use of a taser. He and the family say Burks said \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d five times within seconds during the encounter.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Burks, 39, died Jan. 1 following an encounter involving both New York State Police and City of Newburgh police after a crash on Broadway.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-rich-text-asset-image=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BURKES__1_.JPG\" alt=\"BURKES__1_.JPG\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Body camera video obtained and released by Sussman, and <a data-rich-text-hyperlink=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/hudsonvalley.news12.com\/i-cant-breathe-bodycam-video-shows-man-gasping-for-air-during-arrest-family-seeks-answers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">previously reported by News 12<\/a>, shows City of Newburgh police officers restraining Burks on the ground as he repeatedly says he cannot breathe.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">At the meeting, family members said they were initially told Burks died as the result of a traffic accident and that city police were not involved.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cTwo New York State troopers came to our home to inform us that my bonus son Marcus Anthony Burks died as a result of a traffic accident,\u201d said Burks\u2019 stepmother. \u201cCity of Newburgh Police told us they were not involved at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Burks\u2019 father also addressed council members, saying, \u201cMy son\u2019s death was ruled a homicide,\u201d and called for accountability.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cThe situation has the potential to blow up into something very ugly and divisive,\u201d Sussman said. \u201cThe best way to avoid that is truth-telling and no coverups.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">Newburgh Mayor Torrance Harvey said during the city council meeting the case remains under investigation.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">\u201cLetitia James\u2019 office is working on it,\u201d Harvey said.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">The New York Attorney General\u2019s Office of Special Investigation confirmed it opened a full investigation in April after receiving new information, but would not provide any updated information following the medical examiner&#8217;s findings. The office previously said officers used pepper spray and a taser while attempting to restrain Burks before he became unresponsive.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">State police say two troopers involved remain on duty. They declined to comment due to the pending investigation.<\/p>\n<p data-rich-text-paragraph=\"true\">News 12 has reached out to the City of Newburgh but has not received a response. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The police-involved death of Marcus Burks, the man seen on body camera video repeatedly saying \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-212717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}