MEMPHIS, Tenn. — About 21 hours of newly released video and audio reveal more about what first responders, including the five fired police officers charged in the violent death of Tire Nichols, did and said the night Nichols was apprehended and fatally injured.
The dozens of recordings were made public Tuesday by Memphis city officials under a state judge’s order, which came out the same day former officer Desmond Mills Jr. pleaded guilty in November to federal charges in the case that sparked and exacerbated outrage around the world. calls for police reform. City officials also plan to release additional written documents within two weeks.
Mills also plans to plead guilty in state court and could testify against his four former colleagues — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin and Justin Smith — who still face charges of civil rights violations in federal court and murder and other crimes in federal court. state court. They have pleaded not guilty.
The recordings released Tuesday add hours of context to police video released weeks after the January 2023 traffic stop that showed the five officers beating Nichols as he screamed for his mother, blocks from his home . The new material shows what officers and others did and said before, during and after the assault.
Many of their comments suggest that officers and paramedics seemed fixated on the idea that he was high on drugs. Medics administered Naloxone to reverse a possible opioid overdose while Nichols slumped and unresponsive after officers propped him against a car. One emergency medical technician even claimed, “He’s not hurt. He’s just high.”
Nichols’ autopsy later found only low levels of alcohol and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system.
Two EMTs and a fire lieutenant were fired in the Nichols case.
As for what led to the traffic stop, Bean’s bodycam captured another officer saying Nichols “swerved into oncoming traffic” and “swerved like he was going to hit my car” after they turned on the sirens and ordered him to stop. But the same officer also said that Nichols “stopped at the red light and turned on his turn signal.”
The police chief later said the department could not substantiate any reason for the stop.
The officer said they got out to pursue him and that’s apparently when Nichols fled on foot to his home, to where the assault allegedly occurred, less than a block from his front door.
Other officers recorded themselves saying that Nichols had tried to grab an officer’s gun, which is not clearly visible in any of the videos, and that he was resisting arrest even though Nichols appeared to be following their commands.
Later, some officers seemed perplexed that there were no drugs in the car Nichols was driving. One suggested he could have thrown something while running.
Mills’ body camera also recorded him and his superior officer speaking to Nichols’ mother and stepfather. When the stepfather opened the door and asked what Nichols was in custody for, Lt. Dewayne Smith didn’t seem to know until Mills said “DUI.” Then the lieutenant repeated “DUI.”
“I’m trying to find out if you know he’s on drugs or narcotics or anything,” the lieutenant said. When Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, responded “no,” he said, “because he seemed to be using something other than alcohol.”
Wells then said that Nichols smoked a little marijuana, and Lt. Smith responded, “He used a little more than marijuana.”
Wells then repeatedly tried to find out where her son was, but the lieutenant was evasive, saying he was “with the paramedics” and “they got him a ways from here” and “he’s in the area.” Finally he told her, “He’s going to jail after he undergoes medical treatment.”
As they walked away, Mills told the lieutenant that he believed the parents “knew more than what they were saying” and that he seemed suspicious because they did not open the screen door. Then he said, ‘I just hope… he just has to make it, that’s all. He has to make it. He doesn’t look so good.”
Dewayne Smith, who faces no criminal charges, retired before police allegedly fired him.
About an hour after officers removed Nichols from his car, his mother, along with his stepfather, showed up at the intersection of the first traffic stop and began asking Officer Preston Hemphill what happened.
When Hemphill said Nichols had fought with officers, the mother sounded incredulous.
“My son? Not Tyre,” she said, later adding, “That doesn’t sound like my son. I’m sorry sir.”
Hemphill fired his stun gun during the traffic stop but did not follow Nichols to where other officers beat him. Hemphill was fired but will not face criminal charges.
Attorneys for Nichols’ family said they are reviewing the additional video but expect it “will confirm what we have said from day one: that there was absolutely no justification for the officers’ brutal and inhumane actions.”
“We will continue our unflinching response to this tragedy and strongly support Tire’s family in their continued grief and fight for justice,” attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said in a news release.
The Associated Press sought comment from attorneys for the former officers who were charged. Attorneys for Mills, Haley and Justin Smith declined to comment.
Nichols died in a hospital on January 10, 2023, three days after he was kicked, punched and hit with a police baton.
Nichols was black. The five officers are also black. The four still charged will be tried in federal court in May and in state court in August.
Following the January 2023 release of police body camera and pole camera footage, the city planned to release approximately 20 more hours of video, audio and documents, including officers’ personnel files, but the judge granted the request from the defense asking for a postponement ‘until such images would be released’. once the state and defendants review this information.”
A coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, cited the First Amendment to make them public. Lawyers for the former officers argued that their right to a fair trial should be recognized and protected.
The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a “patterns and practices” investigation into the way Memphis Police Department officers use force and make arrests, and whether the department engages in racially discriminatory policing in the predominantly black city.
In March, the Justice Department announced a separate investigation into the use of force, de-escalation strategies and specialized units within the Memphis Police Department. Nichols’ mother has also sued the city and its police chief over her son’s death.
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Loller and Mattise reported from Nashville. Associated Press writers Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia; Rebecca Reynolds and Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Matthew Barakat in Falls Church, Virginia; Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Md.; Leah Skene in Baltimore; Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia; and Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville contributed.