FILE – The screen at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans honors Tyre Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards, Jan. 28, 2023. FILE – This combo of images provided by the Memphis, Tenn., Police Department shows, top row from left, officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, and bottom row from left, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. (Memphis Police Department via AP, File) FILE – RowVaughn Wells rests on her husband’s shoulder Rodney Wells, the parents of Tyre Nichols, during a news conference after a former Memphis Police Department officer pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in the 2023 fatal beating of their son, Aug. 23, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. FILE – The image from video released on Jan. 27, 2023, by the City of Memphis, shows Tyre Nichols during a brutal attack by five Memphis police officers on Jan. 7, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. (City of Memphis via AP, File)
In an analysis of what the officers claimed happened on that night, The Associated Press sifted through hundreds of pages of evidence and hours of video from the scene, including officer body cameras. The cameras showed a starkly different scene than the one painted in the officers’ words.
More than a year and a half after Nichols’ death, three former officers are facing a federal criminal trial over the deadly pummeling. That’s in addition to allegations that they offered essentially no help as he slumped on a patrol car and onto the pavement, and claims that they lied or left out critical information to protect themselves from repercussions.
The trial will heighten attention on a case that already has sparked outrage around the world and intensified calls for police reform in the city and the U.S. as a whole.
The three officers likewise have been charged in Tennessee state courts, where the other two former officers, Desmond Mills and Emmitt Martin, plan to plead guilty, like they have in federal court. The U.S. Department of Justice has begun investigating the Memphis Police Department and Nichols’ family has sued the city over his death.
Haley wrote in his response to resistance form that Nichols “ignored all directives” to get out of the car. He wrote Nichols was “swinging his arms” and cursing at the officers. Martin’s report claimed Nichols was reaching for one of the officers’ guns.
The video shows Nichols is forced down on his knees, while he tries to calmly tell the officers, “I am on the ground.” Nichols is then physically overpowered by the three officers who are using a Taser and pepper spray on him.
Haley, Bean and Smith all described in their response to resistance forms that the officers used “soft hands” techniques to subdue Nichols — Haley during the traffic stop, and Bean and Smith at the scene of the beating.
Bean, Haley and Smith are charged with acting with “deliberate indifference” while Nichols was on the ground, struggling with his injuries. The indictment, which lodges a number of charges, says the officers “willfully” disregarded Nichols’ medical needs by failing to give him medical care and not telling a police dispatcher and emergency medical personnel that Nichols had been hit repeatedly.
On body-worn camera from Bean, the officers brag about the assault and laugh, and they speculate that Nichols is high. Nichols’ autopsy later detected only low levels of alcohol and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system.…Read more by By JONATHAN MATTISE and ADRIAN SAINZ, ADRIAN SAINZ, By JONATHAN MATTISE, Associated Press
