Five Former Memphis Officers Charged in Tyre Nichols’ Death

The five former Memphis Police Department officers fired following the death of Tyre Nichols have been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault and other charges.

via: CNN

The former officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmit Martin, and Desmond Mills Jr., have each been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, Mulroy said.

“While each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols, and they are all responsible,” he said.

All five officers are currently in custody, Mulroy added. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Video of the fatal police encounter, a mix of body-camera video and pole-cam video, is expected to be released after 6 p.m. Friday, he said.

“This is serious business. These are extremely serious charges,” Mulroy told CNN’s Don Lemon. “I think after everyone sees the video, I don’t think there will be any questions about those charges.”

Second-degree murder is defined in Tennessee as a “knowing killing of another” and is considered a Class A felony punishable by between 15 to 60 years in prison.

The criminal charges come about three weeks after Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was hospitalized after a traffic stop and “confrontation” with Memphis police that family attorneys have called a savage beating. Nichols died from his injuries on January 10, three days after the arrest, authorities said.

The five Memphis police officers, who are also Black, were fired last week for violating policies on excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid, the department said.

Authorities have not publicly released video of the arrest, but Nichols’ family and attorneys were shown the video on Monday. They said the footage shows officers severely beating Nichols and compared it to the Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King in 1991.

“The news today from Memphis officials that these five officers are being held criminally accountable for their deadly and brutal actions gives us hope as we continue to push for justice for Tyre,” Nichols family attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said in a statement.

“This young man lost his life in a particularly disgusting manner that points to the desperate need for change and reform to ensure this violence stops occurring during low-threat procedures, like in this case, a traffic stop. This tragedy meets the absolute definition of a needless and unnecessary death.”

Police nationwide have been under heightened scrutiny for how they treat Black people, particularly since the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the mass protest movement known as Black Lives Matter.

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