There will be a review of the ex-officers’ cases
The Memphis, Tenn., incident of Tyre Nichols: An investigation into the alleged negligence of the officers involved in the fatal police beating
As protesters gathered across US cities over the weekend following the Memphis police beating that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols, officials have said the investigation into the incident will continue amid questions over whether there could be additional charges.
Police in Memphis initially said that the man was pulled over for reckless driving and a confrontation followed before he ran away.
The attorney for the family of Tim Nichols said he thinks there will be more repercussions, but that he doesn’t know if they will lead to criminal charges.
Although nothing was done last Thursday regarding indictments, Steve Mulroy said it wouldn’t preclude them from bringing other charges later.
They waited until 7 p.m. Friday to publicly release the agonizing footage of Nichols’ fatal encounter with officers, allowing time for local politicians, activists and Nichols’ family to make pleas for calm in the community.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Documents released Tuesday provided a scathing account of what authorities called the “blatantly unprofessional” conduct of five officers involved in the fatal police beating of Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop last month — including new revelations about how one officer took and shared pictures of the bloodied victim.
Police say an ambulance was called to the scene after a man complained of weakness in his limbs. He was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition. Three days later, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced Nichols had died from injuries sustained in the “use-of-force incident” with officers, according to the statement.
The Memphis Police Department requested that Haley and the others be removed from the force for their on-duty behavior.
The Memphis police department is trying to help the victims of the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, the youngest black man in the country, and I hope that the city will be reformed
Protesters who were marching around the country carried signs with the name of the young black man, who the country heard pleading for his mother as he was kicked, beaten and pepper-tackled, while a makeshift memorial grew on the corner.
The family of Nichols remembered him as a father who enjoyed skateboarding and photography and a son who liked skateboarding and photographing sunsets. They recalled his smile and hugs and mourned the moments they’ll never have again.
While the heinous actions of a few casts a cloud on the title SCORPION, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department take proactive steps in the healing process of all those impacted. The Memphis Police Department remains committed to serving our community and taking every measure possible to rebuild the trust that has been negatively affected by the death of Mr. Tyre Nichols.”
“That reprehensible conduct we saw in that video, we think this was part of the culture of the SCORPION unit,” Crump said. “So we demanded that they disbanded immediately before we see anything like this happen again.”
“I think the smart move and the mayor is correct in shutting it down. These kinds of actions are not representative of the Memphis Police Department,” Colvett said.
“We just have to change the culture … People have to be held accountable. We have to allow the legacy of Mr. Nichols to show that there will be police reform in this country and here in Memphis.
“We saw a very peaceful and direct sense of protest in the city of Memphis, and I think it’s because maybe we do have faith and hope that the system is going to get it right this time,” Easter-Thomas said.
Indictment of Tyre Mills and the Memphis Police Officers who raped Tyre Nichols at the Shelby County Jail
Officials have said at least seven other members of the police department who were at the scene of the beating are being investigated and that more criminal charges could come. County sheriff’s deputies, fire department staff, and emergency medical responders who delayed treating Nichols’ injuries have also been either fired or suspended.
The attorney for one of the officers indicted, Mills Jr., put out a statement Friday night saying that he didn’t cross lines “that others crossed” during the confrontation. The attorney said that Mills was a victim of the system he worked in.
There have been some first responders who have been fired or suspended. A seventh officer was relieved of duty and the police department fired six officers, while the fire department discharged two EMTs and a lieutenant. Officials said Tuesday that as many as 13 police officers could end up being disciplined.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was passed by the Democratic-controlled House, but not the evenly split Senate.
The Congressional Black Caucus is requesting a meeting with President Joe Biden this week to push for negotiations on police reform, caucus chair Steven Horsford wrote in a news release Sunday.
Gloria Sweet-Love, the Tennessee State Conference NAACP President applauded Memphis Police Chief Davis for “doing the right thing,” by not waiting six months to a year to fire the officers who beat up Tyre Nichols.
She had no applause for Congress, who she called to action saying, “by failing to craft and pass bills to stop police brutality, you’re writing another Black man’s obituary. You have to take care of the blood of Black America. So stand up and do something.”
The Memphis PD and Shelby County Sheriff’s Commission: Creating a Resilient Community for the Treatment of Black People by Saturated Police
The two Democratic lawmakers in Tennessee said Saturday that they intend to file the police reform legislation before Tuesday’s filing deadline. The bills would seek to address mental health care for law enforcement officers, hiring, training, discipline practices and other topics, said Rep. G.A. Hardaway, who represents a portion of Memphis and Shelby County.
While Democrats hold the minority with 24 representatives compared to the Republican majority of 99 representatives, Rep. Joe Towns Jr. said this legislation is not partisan and should pass on both sides of the legislature.
“You would be hard-pressed to look at this footage (of Tyre Nichols) and see what happened to that young man, OK, and not want to do something. If a dog in the county was beaten like that, what would happen? Towns said.
The official efforts to respond to the vicious beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police are already underway, just two days after footage of the incident was released to the public.
Meanwhile, protesters continue to take to the streets of Memphis and elsewhere around the nation to express outrage over the incident and again rally against the treatment of Black people by police.
“We hope that other cities take similar action with their saturation police units in the near future to begin to create greater trust in their communities,” the attorneys said. This misconduct is not limited to these specialty units and it is just the next step in the journey for justice and accountability. It extends so much further.”
Memphis State Police Actions after Nichols, Taylor and the Memphis Shooting: a Case Study for Public Safety and Public Integrity in the State of Memphis
House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, Rep. G.A. Hardaway and Rep. Joe Towns, Jr., announced their plan during a press conference on Saturday.
implicit bias training for police officers and limits on transferring departments after being disciplined are some of the issues the bills aim to address, according to NBC News.
Republicans hold a sizable majority in the Tennessee General Assembly, but the Democrats said they were confident they could get bipartisan support because of the magnitude of the incident, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported.
“Without federal police reform, I think we’re going to continue to see these hashtags proliferate so much that we can’t keep up with them,” Crump told ABC’s This Week.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would ban chokeholds, prohibit no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, end qualified immunity for law enforcement officers – and more.
The five ex-officers are accused of second-degree murder and kidnapping. The footage from the police body camera was made public one day after the traffic stop.
After the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old black man, in Ferguson, Missouri, Johnson helped restore order and he said that it showed in their response.
“A year ago, two years ago, we wouldn’t have seen some of the things we’re seeing here,” Johnson said of Memphis law enforcement’s handling of Nichols’ death.
In Taylor’s case, an initial statement from police about the botched raid in which the 26-year-old was killed said there was no forced entry. The officers had entered her home with a ram before shooting her. Minneapolis police initially said Floyd “appeared to be suffering medical distress.” Floyd was shown on video kneeling on his neck.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said an investigation found no evidence of reckless driving before he was stopped. The investigation pointed out that five former officers had committed a string of departmental policy violations, including one man who lied in a report about an incident.
As a new example of how to keep community trust after fatal police encounters, law enforcement and legal analysts are now pointing to the actions of Memphis.
Body camera footage from the incident, released late last month, put a spotlight on the city’s law enforcement practices and renewed calls for police reform nationwide.
Memphis Police Tyre Nichols Case: A New Blame for High-profile Violation of Civil Rights and State Laws in the Fourth Amendment
The preliminary result of an autopsy commissioned by attorneys for the family shows that he died from bleeding caused by a severe beating.
On January 15, noting the serious nature of the officers’ conduct during the stop,Chief Davis vowed “immediate and appropriate action.” She said the department was giving notice to the officers.
The department said that officers were terminated because of excessive use of force, duty to intervene, and duty to render aid.
The police department has learned something from other high-profile cases, when district attorneys weren’t transparent and they did not act quickly.
“They did the right thing in this case by convening a grand jury, investigating the case quickly, and then charging these officers, bringing them into custody.”
In a news conference Friday, Crump called Memphis an example of a blueprint for future brutality cases, because of the fast criminal charges compared to other cities.
CNN political analyst Bakari Sellers said the swiftness of the charges reminded him of the case involving the April 2015 death of Walter Scott, who was fatally shot in the back after officers pulled him over for a broken brake light in South Carolina.
The former North Charleston police officer was indicted on a murder charge two months after the shooting. The state murder trial of the man who killed Scott ended in a mistrial but that did not stop him from pleading guilty to a violation of civil rights. He was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/30/us/memphis-police-tyre-nichols-case/index.html
Organizing Memphis Protests at the Independence Bridge and the Avenues that Lead to Memphis, N.C.’s Little Caesars
CNN said, “The last thing you want to do is take a high tension event and put people at work on a Friday night knowing that the whole weekend is ahead of them.”
But, Miller said, the delay allowed authorities to show the public “the wheels of justice are turning and turning relatively quickly.” The additional time also allowed officials to “unite the faith community in Memphis, the voice of the family and the family’s lawyers, and the key community contacts” in calling for calm.
Police departments nationwide, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Nashville and New York, all said they had plans in place to deal with protests.
Many of the cases have been watched over the last few years. “And when (law enforcement authorities) come forward and when they’re transparent and they provide information to the community, we typically see a very peaceful response.”
A group of mostly peaceful protesters took to I 55 to block both lanes of the bridge after videos went online. There were no arrests in the area.
After officers disengaged, paramedics arrived minutes after but didn’t arrive until just before an ambulance showed up.
What Memphis Police Did to Prevent the Fatal Encounter with Tyre Nichols: Actions, Actions and Prosecutors
The footage stunned hardened law enforcement experts. The outrage was expressed by officials, including President Joe Biden, who said that it was yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma that Black and Brown Americans experience every day.
There have been many unanswered questions regarding what Memphis Police did to prevent the tragedy after watching the footage of the fatal encounter with Nichols.
“All of this was preventable,” she told CNN Saturday. There are officers who are young on the job who do what they do on a regular basis. This was something that they are used to doing.
Memphis City Council Chairman Martavius Jones grew emotional after watching the video, telling CNN that despite the positive shift in the handling of brutality cases, much more needs to be done.
The district attorney said they are looking at everyone who was involved in the incident from the officers and paramedics on the scene to those who filed the paperwork.
Prosecutors moved “extraordinarily quick” with charges against the five officers “primarily responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols,” the district attorney said.
“Memphis, and the whole world, needs to see that what’s right is done in this case,” Paul Hagerman, an assistant district attorney, said in the hallway outside the courtroom after the hearing. “We believe it’s important that everybody who did something criminal is brought to justice in this case.”
We need to make sure that we look at all of our procedures and make sure that everything is running smoothly.
Another officer has also been fired and a seventh has been relieved of duty in connection with the latest police killing to prompt angry nationwide protests and an intense public conversation about how police officers treat Black residents.
“Officer Preston Hemphill and other officer’s actions and inactions have been and continue to be the subject of this investigation,” Memphis police said in a news release Monday.
The second site where the district attorney said Nichols was beaten and suffered his serious injuries was not shown in the body cam video.
The Nichols Family: Investigating the Men Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Alabama, Two Days After the Assassination
The fire personnel terminated over their response to the encounter are emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge and fire Lt. Michelle Whitaker, the fire department said Monday.
The fire department’s investigation concluded that “the two EMTs responded based on the initial nature of the call and information they were told on the scene and failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols,” the fire chief said in a news release.
After the fire department firings were announced, Antonio Romanucci said, “everybody on that scene was complicit in this man’s death.”
“Some of the questions that remain will require a focus on Desmond Mills’ individual actions,” and “on whether Desmond’s actions crossed the lines that were crossed by other officers during this incident,” Ballin said.
Some have said that Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis was swift in her response, but she was also the one who created the now-deactivated SCORPION police unit.
“They either failed by using excessive force; they failed him by severely beating him; they failed him by not intervening; they failed him by not rendering aid,” the attorney told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday.
The attorney said Nichols’ family still is trying to absorb the breadth of this multi-agency investigation, while also dealing with the loss of their loved one.
The Nichols family is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday night at Memphis’ Mason Temple Church of God in Christ headquarters, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous last speech the day before he was assassinated in that city, according to a press release from their attorney Ben Crump.
The funeral for the man who died after he was beaten by police on video is scheduled to take place in Memphis on Wednesday, roughly three weeks after he died.
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to attend the funeral at the invitation of Nichols’ family. Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, and Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, are also expected.
There will be worship services at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis. Central Time. Organizers said the funeral would be livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube.
The actions of four Shelby County cops charged with second-degree murder in a car accident: a conversation with the media and a review of the cases
Haley is accused of taking photos of Nichols while he was bleeding against a police car, in a new document released this week. It’s reported that he then shared those images, including with non-police officers.
Haley’s lawyer declined to comment, and lawyers for the other four officers either declined to comment or did not respond to requests from The Associated Press.
Haley, who was driving an unmarked car and wore a black sweatshirt hoodie over his head, forced Nichols from his car using loud profanity, then sprayed him directly in the eyes with a chemical irritant spray, according to the statement.
Mills’ charges said he and other officers were captured on a body-worn camera making comments, laughing, and bragg about their involvement.
They accused Mills of failing to give the correct account of what happened, after he admitted not providing medical aid and walking away from the scene of the accident.
Smith admitted to hitting the non-violent subject with his fist, two to three times, because he and his partner could not handcuff him. You sprayed the subject with your irritant spray and held the individual’s arm while other officers kicked, punched and pepper sprayed him.
The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office confirmed in an email to NPR that it will review closed and pending cases connected to Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean, who have all been fired and charged with second-degree murder.
NPR’s Martin Kaste told All Things Considered that the documents, which pertain to the department’s internal review, “paint a picture of officers with a very unprofessional attitude.”
In addition to putting the officers’ other cases up for review, county officials put their names on a so-called list of police officials accused of being dishonest or facing criminal charges.
Brandon Hall, a local defense attorney, was in court Wednesday when a prosecutor dropped the case in which some of the officers were involved, and he expects similar results in other cases.
Another defense attorney and former Shelby County prosecutor, Josh Corman, told the newspaper that prosecutors have been reviewing cases connected to the five officers and that he thinks “it would be a nightmare for any prosecutor to use them as a witness.”
Vickie Terry, the Executive Director of the NAACP’s Memphis Branch, told Memphis TV station WREG that her office received several police-related complaints after Nichols’ death (though she didn’t specify whether they were about those specific officers or the SCORPION unit).
“They displayed no integrity, so it makes me afraid that others have been treated this way,” she said. “If they go back and find out somebody might have been convicted for something that they did not do, you’re definitely going to have to reopen cases.”
A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a black man killed by a Shreveport, Louisiana, police officer and state police
A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of a Black man who was shot and killed by a Shreveport, Louisiana police officer.
Louisiana State Police said in a statement that Bagley was fatally shot by police after they responded to a domestic violence call. According to a statement from state police, Bagley jumped from the balcony of an apartment and fled after being confronted by two officers.
The “use of lethal force against an unarmed man who posed no threat is objectively unreasonable, excessive and wholly without justification,” the lawsuit alleges.
Tyler is currently on paid administrative leave pending results of the state police investigation, the Shreveport Police Department told CNN. The officer joined the department in May, according to Chief Wayne Smith.
In Louisiana, several state troopers and a law enforcement officer were indicted last year for their roles in the beating of a 49-year-old black man during an arrest.
Davis asked for patience as the investigation continued following Bagley’s death. The agency wants to make the investigation transparent.
“The family hopes to view the video before (Bagley’s) funeral,” Ronald Haley, the family’s attorney, told CNN, noting the funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
“Further information will be released in coordination with the District Attorney’s Office. Nick Manale, a spokesman for the state police, told CNN that there was no timetable at this time.
“Louisiana State police has the case under investigation,” Laura Fulco, the first assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish, said. “It is still under investigation.”
The Five Black Men Against the Charges of Nichols’ Boast, Robert L. Bean, Managing Attorney for the Bean Law Enforcement Team
All five men have been free on bond, and appeared only briefly on Friday, standing side by as each of their lawyers entered pleas on their behalf. The parents sat in the courtroom gallery with their attorney.
Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, called Friday’s arraignment “the beginning of the process of justice,” and said she and her family were determined to see it through to the end.
She said the defendants did not have the courage to look at her in the face after what they did to her son. They will see me at every court date, until we get justice for my son.
After Friday’s hearing the attorney for Bean indicated his strategy would be to convince the jury that not all the former officers are to blame for Nichols’ beating and death.
He was doing his job, no more, no less, when it came to the involvement of each individual defendant in that particular case. He didn’t hit anyone. He only did his job.
“Let’s not forget that my client is a Black man in a courtroom in America,” he said. “I will work tirelessly to make sure the system does not fail Mr. Mills, and that a fair outcome is achieved.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/17/1157756023/memphis-tyre-nichols-police-officers-court-charges
Memphis City Attorney General Eric Sink meets with the media on the case of the first-degree murder-related incident involving Nichols and Lambda-CDM officers
The five officers will be sentenced to 15 to 60 years for the second-degree murder charge. The court date for May 1 was set by the judge.
The city council preliminarily voted last week on the six proposed changes to the police department, including two that would restrict officers’ ability to conduct routine traffic stops and one that would prevent officers from making traffic stops in cars they use to stop others. Among other measures, the council also voted to strengthen the civilian review board that investigates complaints of police abuse.
L.J. Abraham said you become used to watching police violence in Memphis. “But I don’t think any of us ever expected to see someone as gentle and kind and nonviolent as Tyre be pulled out of his car and beaten to death. If that would happen to him, that could literally happen to anybody.”
In recent years, Memphis officials have undertaken an aggressive push to hire hundreds of new police officers amid stubbornly high rates of violent crime.
But as the department has struggled to fill its ranks, it has lowered hiring criteria, even seeking permission to recruit officers with criminal records. Those moves could mean more police officers are ill-equipped to serve, and that they abuse their authority.
During a city council meeting on Tuesday, Memphis City Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink said that the city is also ready to release additional information — including nearly 20 hours of video and audio from the scene of Nichols’ death — to the public on Wednesday afternoon.
Both the city’s police and fire departments have been conducting administrative investigations to determine whether any employees involved in the incident violated department policies, according to Sink.
On the investigation of the death of Nichols, the assistant commissioner for communication, C.S. Sink, d.c.o.m
The Director of Communications will release 20 hours of new video and audio online via Vimeo, as the body camera footage was released to the public in late January.
According to Sink the city will release details regarding the charges and administrative investigations that were involved in the death of Nichols.
During the hearing, a committee member asked whether any officers who struck Nichols were still employed by the department. Sink said that one of the suspended officers put their hands on Nichols’ legs.
