Officers Charged in the Death of Tyre Nichols
February 17, 2023
Five Memphis police officers have been charged with second-degree murder after beating Tyre Nichols to death.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith, who were the five officers involved, were fired last week after an administration investigation found that they had violated department policy on use of force.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said the former officer’s actions led to Nichols’ death. Mulroy said that after the initial altercation, Nichols fled from officers. “There was another altercation at a nearby location, where serious injuries were experienced by Mr. Nichols. After some period of time of waiting around afterward, he was taken away by an ambulance,” according to Mr. Mulroy.
The body camera video of the traffic stop that was released on Friday doesn’t show what caused the officers to stop Nichols.
The fired officers were charged last Thursday with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of official oppression and one count of aggravated assault. All five officers are out of jail after posting bail, Bean, Mills and Smith posted $250,000 bail and the other two officers, Haley and Martin posted $350,000 bail.
After the release of the videos, the attorney for Mills, Blake Ballin, said that he and Mills would look at the videos together “at the appropriate time.” Ballin added that “a thorough investigation of all available angles is needed before providing context or comment. My heart goes out to the Nichols family and the entire city of Memphis.”
Attorneys for Mills and Martin have said that their clients plan to plead not guilty.
Initial autopsy results performed by the coroner show that Nichols was severely beaten before dying. The Shelby County Coroner’s Office has not released an official cause of death.
Nichols’ case is under investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and by the US Department of Justice.
Two Shelby County sheriff’s deputies were relieved of duty Friday night, pending the outcome of an investigation. The Memphis Fire Department also said that two Memphis Fire Department personnel described as being involved in Nichols’ “initial patient care” were relieved of duty pending the investigation into his death.
