Federal Grand Jury Indicts Five Former Memphis Officers in Tyre Nichols’ Death
A federal grand jury has indicted five former Memphis police officers in relation to Tyre Nichols’ death.
According to court documents, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III, and Desmond Mills Jr. were indicted on charges of depriving someone of their rights while acting under the color of the law, including using excessive force, failing to intervene, and deliberately being indifferent, as well as planning to influence witnesses.
Three days after a violent altercation with police during a traffic check, Nichols, 29, passed away on January 10.
In connection with the death of Nichols, all five former policemen are also accused with state felonies, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, and aggravated kidnapping. They pleaded innocent.
Haley’s state-court attorney, Mike Stengel, has indicated that he will also represent Haley in connection with the federal allegations.
The indictment contains a detailed description of the acts that the five policemen are accused of doing in order to brutally assault Nichols, willfully disregard his need for immediate medical attention, and then attempt to cover up their crimes.
According to the indictment, each defendant participated in the beating of Nichols during the traffic stop on January 7 but none reported their involvement to the Memphis police dispatcher, their supervisor, or the EMTs and paramedics who were on the way to the site.
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Assault to Indictment
The indictment claims that the police limited the amount of evidence that was recorded by using their body-worn cameras, with Martin moving his to a place where the group’s assault on Nichols wouldn’t be recorded and Haley and Smith only turning on their cameras after the assault.
The group allegedly discussed their assault on Nichols after Haley and Mills took off their body-worn cameras, saying things like, “Everybody rocking his a**, Pop pop, please fall; and I thought when he wasn’t going to fall, we about to kill this man.”
The indictment claims that after the arrest, the gang convened at the police station and lied to an MPD investigator about it for the Incident Report, stating Nichols had aggressively fought arrest “by pulling gun belts” and grabbing one officer by his vest.
The detective was also misinformed by Mills and Smith when they said that “Nichols was so strong that he lifted two officers into the air.”
The group also left out details of how they had kicked and pummeled Nichols, and the final incident report erroneously claimed that detectives had been able to take Tyre Nichols into custody “after multiple verbal commands.”
According to Ritz, the two obstruction of justice offenses carry a potential punishment of up to 20 years in jail, while the two counts claiming civil rights breaches resulting in death hold a sentence of up to life in prison.
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Source: Newsbreak
