Officials are investigating the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, on Jan. 10, after police officers pulled him over for erratic driving and assaulted him on Jan. 7.
In videos released on Jan. 27 from the City of Memphis, what happened to Tyre Nichols plays out on the footage from three body cameras and a pole camera.
Video 1, a body camera, shows police stopping Nichols at a red light and pulling him out of his car around 8:25 p.m. There is yelling and aggression from officers.
“Okay, you guys are really doing a lot right now. I’m just trying to get home,” Nichols said at one point while he was on the ground beside his car.
Video 1 then shows what appears to be an officer pepper-spraying Nichols in the face. There is a struggle as Nichols gets off the ground and away from the officers. Another officer tases Nichols as he takes off down a street, peeling his shirt off while he runs.
Video 4, another body camera, shows an officer in a vehicle, when he spots Nichols and jumps out of the passenger side to chase him down. He tackles Nichols right before 8:33 p.m.
Video 2, above them, turns to show Nichols on the ground near a street corner at a neighborhood intersection with two officers pinning him down.
Then, a third police officer enters the frame and appears to kick Nichols in the head twice.
Video 3 shows an officer that walks up to the other officers pinning Nichols down, shows Nichols shouting for his mother and getting pepper-sprayed in the face again after struggling and slapping away the officers’ attempts to handcuff him.
An officer then beats Nichols with a baton. Nichols is then hit multiple times in the face. Three more police officers come running onto the scene around 8:36 p.m., and Nichols receives two more blows to the head.
At 8:38 p.m., the pole camera shows the officers dragging Nichols over to their police car and sitting him up against it.
“He’s on something,” one of the officers said near one of the body cameras, which had fallen onto the ground in the struggle.
Medics arrive around 8:41 p.m. They bring a stretcher into the footage around 9:00 p.m.
Nichols was then hospitalized in critical condition and was pronounced dead on Jan. 10.
“After a thorough review of the circumstances surrounding this incident, we have determined that five (5) MPD officers violated multiple department policies, including excessive use of force, duty to intervene, and duty to render aid,” the Memphis Police Department said in a statement.
The officers involved were Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, each officer has been charged with seven counts: second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping in possession of a deadly weapon, official misconduct, official misconduct – refrain, and official oppression. Bond for Haley and Martin is set at $350,000, and $250,000 is the set bond for Bean, Mills, and Smith.
According to Fox News, Mills and Smith have posted bond and were released on Jan. 26. Martin and Bean also posted their bond and were released Jan. 27. Haley has yet posted his.
On Feb. 3, the Memphis Police Department released a statement that they have fired a sixth police officer, Officer Preston Hemphill. Hemphill was fired for violating departmental policies.
According to CNN, the Tennessee Emergency Medical Services Division suspended two first responders that were present at the scene: Robert Long and JaMichael Lamar Sandridge. They did not perform certain medical tasks for 19 minutes.
A funeral was held for Nichols on Feb 1 around 1 p.m. at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, according to NBC News, and in attendance was Vice President Kamala Harris and Rev. Al Sharpton.
