family of tyre nicholswho died one after the other brutal beating The officers and the city of Memphis were sued Wednesday by five Memphis police officers, blaming them for his death and accusing the officers of allowing a special unit’s aggressive tactics to go unchecked despite warning signs.
One on Memphis Police Director Cereline “CJ” Davis in the trial crime-suppression unit called scorpion To target repeat violent offenders in high crime areas. The lawsuit claims that the Scorpion Unit used “extreme threats, humiliation and violence” and “disproportionately focused on and targeted young black males,” adding that Nichols was targeted. It said the department allowed this aggressive approach to develop and ignored complaints by other residents targeted by the unit prior to Nichols’ death.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys for Tyree Nichols’ mother, Rowan Wells, seeks a jury trial and financial damages. Charges against five officers Police said Nichols was a member of the unit with the beating. unit was disbanded after beating Nicholls,
The city of Memphis declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Nichols Died three days after the brutal beating in January. It was the latest in a string of violent encounters between police and black people that sparked protests and renewed public discussion about police brutality.
Tyra Nichols as seen in a photo provided by her family.
Courtesy of the Nichols family via AP
In most cases, the officers have been white, but all five officers accused in Nichols’ death are black. The officers have been charged with second degree murder.
The lawsuit named the city of Memphis as defendants, Police Director Davis, five officers who have been fired and been charged, as well as another officer fired but not chargedand an additional officer who retired before being fired, it also has three names memphis fire department personnel who were fired after officials said they failed to render aid to Nichols as he was battling his injuries.
The lawsuit states that the officers stopped Nichols while he was driving his car, which was “never confirmed”.
Nichols said “What have I done?” The lawsuit states that he fled from officers during the encounter and after being forced out of his car “to attempt to save his life and defend himself”.
While still able to speak, Tyre screamed for his mother “Mother!” Mother!” in the neighborhood in the hope that he or someone around would come to her aid as she was being brutalized and bludgeoned to death.
The lawsuit states that Nichols was beaten so badly that he was “unrecognizable” just a few feet from his home. “Unlike Till, this lynching was perpetrated by men dressed in department sweatshirts and vests and their actions were explicitly and implicitly sanctioned by the City of Memphis,” it said.
Five officers’ own body cameras recorded them beating nicholas And then ignored him for nearly half an hour as the handcuffed and badly bruised 29-year-old struggled to stay upright, sitting in front of an unmarked police car.
The lawsuit states that Memphis police at the scene “smiled, laughed and talked to their fellow officers” after the beating as Nichols sat on the ground.
Video of Tyra Nichols’ arrest has reignited calls for police reform
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Taddeus Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith have been charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’ death. He has pleaded not guilty.
Martin, Haley and now-dismissed Officer Preston Hemphill claimed that Nichols, who was on his way home from the park on the evening of January 7, was driving recklessly before stopping him.
They forced Nichols out of his car, pinned him to the ground and pepper-sprayed him, threatening to break his arm and fire a stun gun at him. According to police records, when Nichols managed to escape, Hemphill fired his stun gun.
Nichols was captured a few minutes later by Mills, Bean and Smith. According to police records, the five officers, joined by Haley and Martin, punched, kicked, and pepper-sprayed Nichols and beat him with batons. Memphis Police Director Davis has said that he has not seen any evidence to justify the traffic stop or the officers’ response.
The suit says that the city of Memphis hired Davis as police chief knowing that he had played a prominent role with the Atlanta Police Department’s RED DOG unit: “a police unit that was eventually found to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment.” was breached due to several allegations of the United States Constitution, including — but not limited to — illegal searches and seizures and excessive force,” according to the lawsuit. Davis is accused in the lawsuit form a single unit the Memphis Police Department that “predictably imposed the same unconstitutional mandates, policies and practices” the lawsuit called the Scorpions “an officially authorized gang of over-experienced, untrained, hyper-aggressive police officers unleashed upon the Memphis community without oversight” loosened.”
The lawsuit claims that members of the Scorpion Unit “engaged in the practice of ‘calling out’ Memphis citizens to attack and aggressively harass and search them publicly.” It accuses Davis and other police supervisors of encouraging officers to engage in illegal searches and seizures.
The lawsuit accuses the Memphis Police Department of lowering the standards of who can become an officer and making it easier to graduate from the police academy by allowing the officers involved in Nichols’ beating to enlist multiple times. According to the lawsuit, in addition to being underqualified, the new recruits were not properly trained in several areas, including probable cause, traffic stops, the Fourth Amendment, and use of force.
