MEMPHIS – A police report written hours after officers hit Tire Nichols is the complete opposite of what videos have revealed since, making no mention of the powerful kicks and punches unleashed. Nichols but instead claimed he was violent.
The police report describes Mr Nichols, 29, who died three days after the January 7 beating, as an angry suspect who “started fighting” with Memphis police officers, even with take one of their guns. The videos, released last week, show nothing of the sort.
Instead, they caught officers pulling Mr. Nichols out of the car, threatening to injure him and then — after he fled — overtook him and beat him to death. During that time, it seems from the videos, Mr. Nichols never hit back.
On Monday, the fallout from Mr. Nichols’ death continued. The police department announced that it had suspended two more officers, in addition to the five who were fired and charged with murder during the beating.
Meanwhile, the city’s fire chief, Gina Sweat, fired two emergency medical technicians and a lieutenant who was on the scene, saying they all violated some policy.
The fire chief said that EMTs were responding to reports of a person being pepper sprayed and that they relied on information given to them at the scene, presumably because some police officer had just kicked, punch and use. Nichols, a FedEx worker and father, who begged the officers to stop.
The official account written by a police officer early the next morning tells a much different story, in which Mr. Nichols was the attacker.
It is the latest case across the country in which video evidence – whether from body-camera or bystander cell phone footage – offers an entirely different account of police violence than it does. with what the officers themselves reported.
In Minneapolis, for example, police said in May 2020 that George Floyd had died following a “medical incident,” a description that was soon given. challenged by a teenager’s cell phone videoled to international protests and the imposition of four officers.
More about Tire Nichols .’s Death
During Mr. Nichols’ arrest, the officer wrote that police stopped Mr. Nichols’ car on January 7 after seeing him drive fast and swerve into oncoming traffic, and that when stopped, Mr. Nichols has “rejected lawful detention”. and fight with detectives at the scene.
Cerelyn Davis, Memphis police chief, said investigators were unable to determine whether Nichols was driving recklessly. And videos show officers with guns drawn closer to his car, while threatening and cursing him, before pulling him outside and pushing him to the ground.
Mr. Nichols, sounding distraught, said “You don’t do that, okay?” and then try to follow Quick and contradictory firing orders of officers, including ordering him to lie on the ground while he was already lying down. “Okay, I’m on the ground,” he said, before responding to another request: “Yes, sir.”
But police rampage continued, with one threatening to shoot his Taser at Mr Nichols and another threatening to “break” his arm. Mr. Nichols begged them to stop and at one point said: “You’re really doing a lot of work right now.”
The police report said that around this time, Mr. Nichols grabbed a detective’s gun, which is not featured in any of the videos. Officers then pepper sprayed Mr. Nichols in the face, after which he fled towards his mother’s house.
A photo of a police report is posted online for the first time over the weekend by Thaddeus Matthews, a Memphis talk show host who is known as the Cursed Pastor and said he got it from a source. Local district attorney Steven J. Mulroy, who is leading the prosecution of the officers, said Monday that he has a copy of the police report with the same account.
Both the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and the Memphis Police Department are listed on the photograph of the report released by Mr. Matthews, including only the last name of the officer who wrote it, it is unclear which agency was responsible for the report. its contents. The two will not discuss the document.
When officers caught up with Mr Nichols minutes after he fled, they grabbed him and brutally beat him, with one officer delivering a series of blows to Mr Nichols’ head while two other officers held his hand behind his back. back.
The police report did mention that officers beat Mr. Nichols in the arm with batons and that they fired pepper spray and stun guns at Mr. Nichols, but it did not include further details of the beating officers suffered. agency has performed. took place less than 100 meters from his mother’s house.
Despite the fact that Mr Nichols did not appear to have hit back, the report listed Mr Nichols as a suspect in a serious assault and said he had snatched an officer’s belt and vest. A Memphis police officer is listed in the report as a victim. That officer was one of five people charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’ death.
Only one of the two police officers suspended on Monday has been identified. That officer, Preston Hemphill, shot his Taser at Mr Nichols as he fled, and the officer later said, while his body camera was rolling, “I hope they’ll stomp on it. his butt.” He is not seen on video from the second location where police carried out the assault on Mr Nichols.
All five officers charged were Black, as was Mr. Nichols. Officer Hemphill is white.
The district attorney’s office said in a statement Monday that prosecutors were still considering whether to bring more charges, including against Officer Hemphill, the Fire Department employee. and officials wrote reports on the incident.
Sheriff Sweat said Monday that the two EMTs she fired had “failed to conduct a full patient assessment” on Mr Nichols after arriving on the scene. The fired lieutenant drove the fire truck and never got out, the sheriff said.
One day before, The Times reported that EMTs largely looked on as Mr Nichols writhed in pain and, at one point, didn’t touch him or take care of him for nearly seven minutes.
Videos from the scene showed when paramedics arrived, the police officers who beat Mr. Nichols were laughing about the incident and described it in detail, with one saying he hit Mr. Nichols with a “machine making machine”. hay”. It is not clear whether paramedics heard this or how much officers told them about the injuries they had inflicted.
They also insisted that Mr. Nichols was on drugs, which there is no evidence to suggest. And when another officer arrived at the scene, they described events that, if they had occurred, would not have been shown on the footage, claiming that Mr Nichols had “swinged” at an officer and “actually put his hand on the ground”. ‘ into the officer’s gun.
The police report is not the only official account of the beating that has been challenged by the videos.
The first police officer of the Police Department declare, issued hours after the arrest, only described each of the two encounters as “confrontational” and omitted details of the beating. “The suspect then complained of difficulty breathing,” it said, noting that state investigators were called in.
The message changed after Mr. Nichols died, residents protested and his family urged authorities to respond. Sheriff Davis since then condemn the action of indicted cadres is the “failure of basic humanity.”
Those officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — each charged with seven felony counts, in addition to second-degree murder, including kidnapping, official misconduct, and more serious crimes. assault.
