Five Memphis police officers indicted on multiple federal charges including witness tampering over their involvement in Tyre Nichols’ brutal beating death
Five Memphis police officers have been federally charged for their involvement in the brutal death of Tire Nichols.
The Daily Memphian first reported that all of the men allegedly involved in the death of 29-year-old Nichols have been federally charged.
An indictment filed Tuesday in federal court accused the five men, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith, of excessive force, failure to intervene, deliberate indifference and witness tampering.
The five men, all of whom worked for the Memphis Police Department, were seen on video punching and tasing Nichols in January.
Nichols later died from his brain injuries sustained from blunt force trauma to the head, with his death formally ruled a homicide.
Nichols, an unarmed man, died after being kicked and punched by Memphis police in January
From top row from left: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, bottom row from left, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith. All have been charged in Nichols’ death
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Kevin G. Ritz for the Western District of Tennessee will hold a press conference later today in Memphis.
The five officers involved – all from the Scorpion unit – claim they arrested Nichols on suspicion of reckless driving.
Nichols was taken to a hospital in an ambulance that left the scene of the assault 27 minutes after emergency medical services arrived, authorities said.
Police said Nichols was suspected of reckless driving, but no verified evidence of a traffic violation has emerged in public records or video footage.
Memphis Police Department Director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis has said she has seen no evidence to justify the stop or the officers’ response.
She disbanded the Scorpion unit, which she founded in November 2021, after Nichols’ death.
All five men also face criminal charges in Shelby County for manslaughter, aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of official misconduct and official oppression.
The shocking video of Nichols’ beating showed the officers brutally beating the FedEx worker for three minutes while shouting profanities at him in an attack that the Nichols family’s legal team has likened to the infamous police beating of the motorist Rodney King from Los Angeles in 1991.
According to the medical examiner’s report, Nichols had traces of marijuana in his system
In the video, the officers can be heard saying that Nichols was “high as a kite.”
In the shocking video, Nichols was seen calling out to his mother before his limp body was leaned against a police car and the officers exchanged punches.
Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, said at the time of the video’s release that the family would “continue to seek justice,” noting that several other officers failed to render aid, making them “just as guilty as the officers who shot the threw the ball’. to succeed.’
The arrest was made by the so-called Scorpion unit, which consists of three teams of about thirty street officers who target violent offenders in high-crime areas. The unit has now been disbanded.
An indictment filed Tuesday in federal court accused the five men of excessive force, failure to intervene, deliberate indifference and witness tampering.
Police said Nichols was suspected of reckless driving, but no verified evidence of a traffic violation has emerged in public records or video footage
An officer in the video accused Nichols of swerving as if he was planning to hit an officer’s car.
The officer said when Nichols stopped at a red light, the officers jumped out of the car.
“We tried to get him to stop,” the officer said sadly. “He didn’t stop.”
Officers also initially said Nichols was stopped for reckless driving, but there is no evidence to support those claims.
After the first officer roughly pulls Nichols out of a car, Nichols is heard saying, “I didn’t do anything,” as a group of officers begin wrestling him to the ground.
Second-degree murder is punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison under Tennessee law.