Protesters march on Saturday, January 28, in Memphis, Tenn., over the death of Tire Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police.
Gerald Herbert/AP
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Gerald Herbert/AP
Protesters march on Saturday, January 28, in Memphis, Tenn., over the death of Tire Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police.
Gerald Herbert/AP
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A sixth Memphis officer was fired Friday after an internal police investigation found he violated multiple department policies in the violent arrest of Tire Nichols. , including rules around the use of stun guns, officials said.
Preston Hemphill was suspended from work as he was investigated for his role in the January 7 arrest of Nichols, who died in hospital three days later. Five Memphis officers were fired and charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’ death.
Nichols was beaten after police stopped him for what they said was a traffic violation. Video released following pressure from Nichols’ family shows officers holding him back and repeatedly punching, kicking and beating him with batons as he screams for his mother.
The officers were fired and charged with being Black, as was Nichols. Hemphill is white. Another officer has been suspended, but has not been identified.
Hemphill was the third officer at the traffic stop before his arrest but was not present at the site where Nichols was beaten after he fled.
On body-mounted camera footage from the initial stop, Hemphill is heard saying he used a stun gun against Nichols and stated, “I hope they’ll stomp his ass.”
In addition to violating the rules regarding the use of stun guns, Hemphill was fired for violations of personal conduct and honesty, police said in a statement.
Police announced Hemphill’s suspension on January 30, but they say Hemphill was indeed suspended shortly after his arrest.
Memphis police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said information about Hemphill’s suspension was not immediately released because Hemphill has not been fired. Rudolph said that the department usually only provides information about an officer’s punishment after the department’s investigation into misconduct is over.
After the suspension was announced, attorneys for the Nichols family questioned why the department had not disclosed Hemphill’s disciplinary action sooner.
“From the outset, we asked the Memphis Police Department to be transparent with the family and the community – this news seems to suggest that they failed to seize the opportunity,” said attorneys Ben Crump and Anthony Romanucci. know in a statement. “It certainly raises the question of why the white officer involved in this brutal attack was shielded and protected from public attention, and so far, from sufficient discipline and responsibility. accountability.”
Also on Friday, a Tennessee board suspended the emergency medical technician licenses of two former Memphis Fire Department employees for failing to provide critical care.
The suspension of EMT Robert Long and Enhanced EMT JaMichael Sandridge builds on authorities’ efforts to hold officers and other first responders accountable for violent conduct against Nichols. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the video-recorded attack.
Three fire department employees were fired after Nichols died. Former Fire Department, Lt. Michelle Whitaker is the third employee to be fired, but her license was not considered for suspension on Friday. The department said she remained in the engine room with the driver during the response to Nichols being hit.
Jeff Beaman, a member of the Emergency Medical Services Committee, said during an emergency meeting Friday that there may be other licensed personnel on the scene — including supervisors — who could have prevented the situation that led to Nichols’ death. Beaman said he hopes the board will address those issues in the future.
Matt Gibbs, an attorney for the state Department of Health, said the two suspensions “are not final on this whole matter.”
Council members watched 19-minute surveillance video showing Long and Sandridge as they ignored Nichols, who couldn’t sit upright against the side of the car, repeatedly lying on his stomach. They also reviewed the affidavit of the Memphis Fire Department’s deputy superintendent of EMS.
“The (state) Department of Health alleges that neither Mr Sandridge nor Mr Long participated in the emergency and treatment of the TN patient, who was apparently in distress for a period of 19 minutes,” Gibbs said.
Board member Sullivan Smith said it was “clear to even a layperson” that Nichols was “in terrible distress and in need of help.”
“And they failed to provide that help,” Smith said. “They were his best shot, and they didn’t help.”
Fire Chief Gina Sweat said the department received a call from police after someone was pepper sprayed. When workers arrived at 8:41 p.m., Nichols was handcuffed to the ground and collapsed into a police vehicle, the statement said.
Long and Sandridge, based on the nature of the call and information they were told by police, “failed to conduct a full patient assessment of Mr. Nichols,” the statement said.
There was no immediate response to a voicemail seeking comment left at a number listed for Long. A person who answered the phone to a number listed for Sandridge declined to comment on the board’s decision.
An ambulance was called and it arrived at 8:55 p.m., the statement said. An emergency unit cared for Nichols and took him to the hospital at 9:08 p.m., 27 minutes after Long, Sandridge and Whitaker arrived, officials said.
An investigation determined that all three violated multiple policies and protocols, the statement said, adding that “their actions or inactions at the scene that night did not meet the Department’s expectations.” Fire Memphis.”
The fired officers involved were part of the so-called Scorpion unit, which specializes in targeting violent criminals in high crime areas. Sheriff Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said after the video was released that the unit had been disbanded.
Mayor Jim Strickland said Friday that the city has ordered a review of its police department – including special units and the use of force policy – through the Office of Community Outreach Policy Services. of the United States Department of Justice, or COPS, through the Center for Technical Assistant Center Program Initial Cooperation Reform, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The COPS team is also assisting in assessing law enforcement’s response to the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
The murder has led to a new public discussion about how police forces can treat Black residents with undue violence, regardless of the race of both police officers and those being policed.
At Nichols’ funeral on Wednesday, calls for reform and justice were intertwined with the grief of the loss of a man remembered as a son, brother, father, photographer, and photographer. Passionate skater.
