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Tag: misconduct

  • What we know about the fatal police shooting of Jayland Walker as grand jury considers the case | CNN

    What we know about the fatal police shooting of Jayland Walker as grand jury considers the case | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The city of Akron, Ohio, is bracing for the findings of a special grand jury, which has been tasked with deciding if any of the eight police officers directly involved in the fatal shooting of Jayland Walker last summer will face criminal charges.

    The shooting – in which Walker, who was Black, was shot dozens of times – came after police said the 25-year-old fled an attempted traffic stop early one morning last June. Walker’s death prompted an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, along with protests over racial injustice and police use of force – a few of which erupted into violence, resulting in damage to local businesses, according to Akron police.

    Walker was unarmed at the time he was killed, according to police, though a gun was found in his vehicle after the shooting, and officers said Walker fired a gun from his vehicle during the car chase.

    The Ohio BCI investigation has been completed and was referred to the special prosecutor, a spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office confirmed to CNN last month. The office declined to comment on any matters related to grand jury proceedings.

    The city and attorneys for Walker’s family, however, acknowledged the grand jury review was underway in statements to CNN, with the latter criticizing the process as one that favored the police.

    “Today an Akron grand jury began its process of determining whether the officers who gunned down Jayland Walker last summer will be held criminally accountable for their actions,” attorney Bobby DiCello said in a statement Monday.

    “As part of that process, as Ohio law allows, the officers will be invited to testify before the grand jury on their behalf. Keep in mind that if any other Akron citizen was accused of a crime, they would not necessarily be afforded that same privilege,” he said. “Simply put, it’s a process that favors the officers.”

    City officials hosted public meetings to address concerns about the grand jury proceedings and how any decision might impact the community. At one, Police Chief Stephen Mylett said he was “anticipating that there is going to be a response from Akron and beyond.”

    The city also has established a demonstration zone downtown, along with temporary barriers and fencing around court and municipal buildings – moves a city spokesperson described as purely precautionary.

    Here’s what we know about the shooting of Jayland Walker:

    Walker was killed in a burst of gunfire early June 27, 2022, following a vehicle pursuit and foot chase that started when officers tried to stop him for traffic and equipment violations.

    Walker fled the stop and officers gave chase, according to a narrated video timeline police played at a news conference July 3, when police released parts of body camera videos from 13 officers at the scene.

    About 40 seconds after the start of the pursuit, the narrated video said, “a sound consistent with a gunshot can be heard” in body camera footage, and the officers told dispatch a gunshot had been fired from Walker’s vehicle. Police also showed still images taken from traffic cameras that showed “a flash of light” – purportedly a muzzle flash – along the driver’s side of the car.

    “That changes the whole nature” of the incident, Mylett said at the time, turning a “routine traffic stop” into a “public safety issue.”

    After several minutes, Walker’s vehicle slowed and he exited and ran, police said. Several police officers got out of their patrol cars and chased him, and officers deployed Tasers in an effort to stop him, police said, but were unsuccessful.

    Moments later, police said, Walker “stopped and quickly turned towards the pursuing officers.” Mylett told reporters officers believed Walker was reaching towards his waist and they “felt that Mr. Walker had turned and was motioning and moving into a firing position,” Mylett said, and officers opened fire, killing him.

    Walker was handcuffed behind his back after the shooting – a move Mylett said was in accordance with department policy. Mylett indicated at a community event in late March that adjustments would be made to the policy.

    Walker suffered 46 gunshot entrance or graze wounds, according to an autopsy by Summit County Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Kohler, who found the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds.

    Per Kohler, the wounds included:

    • 15 on Walker’s torso, where he had internal injuries to his heart, lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestines and multiple ribs.

    • 17 on his pelvis and upper legs, where the right major artery going to the leg and the bladder were injured and the pelvis and both femurs were broken.

    • One on his face, where the jaw broke.

    • Eight on his arms and right hand.

    • Five on his knees, right lower leg and right foot.

    Though police accused Walker of firing a gunshot out his vehicle’s window, a gunshot residue test was not performed as part of the autopsy, Kohler said, explaining gunshot residue testing can detect specific particles related to the discharge of a firearm “but the results of that testing is not conclusive as to whether the person did or did not fire a weapon.”

    The FBI discontinued this testing in 2006, and Kohler said her office discontinued the collection of that sampling a decade later and no longer purchases collection kits.

    Eight police officers “directly involved” in the shooting were initially placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, according to department protocol, Mylett said.

    They were reinstated by October 10, a decision Mylett attributed to “staffing issues” in comments to CNN affiliate WEWS, acknowledging “there may be some community concern.”

    While back at work, the officers were not in uniform or responding to service calls, the Akron Police Department said.

    According to information released by the city, seven of the eight officers are White and one is Black.

    “The decision to deploy lethal force as well as the number of shots fired is consistent with use of force protocols and officers’ training,” the Fraternal Order of Police Akron Lodge 7 said in a statement last year.

    The week following the shooting, police released 13 videos from officers’ body cameras – eight from the officers directly involved in the shooting and five others from others who were at the scene.

    The videos were released according to a city ordinance requiring video footage documenting an active police officer’s use of force to be released within seven days of the incident.

    Toward the end of the pursuit, some of the footage shows the silver car Walker was driving stopping before he begins to exit the driver’s side.

    At least one officer shouts, “Let me see your hands,” and tells him not to move. The video shows Walker getting back into the car, which slowly moves forward. He is then seen getting out of the passenger side door and running from officers.

    At least one officer again yells for Walker to show his hands, one video shows. The foot chase continued for several seconds, before a series of gunshots ring out over seven seconds.

    The videos end right after the gunshots were fired and do not depict police officers’ efforts to provide medical care, though police say they attempted first aid after the shooting.

    Walker was declared dead at the scene.

    Through a Freedom of Information Act request, CNN obtained in early September 24 more heavily redacted video clips showing more than four hours of the shooting and its immediate aftermath.

    Each video contains several sections where the footage is blurred or blacked out, or where audio is muted. The city told CNN at the time this was done to redact officers’ identifying information.

    In several videos, gunfire is heard for seven to eight seconds, followed by officers’ attempts to determine whether Walker is armed while he lies face-up and non-responsive on the ground.

    “Can anyone see the gun?” one officer is heard repeatedly asking, as a group of officers stand with guns still aimed at Walker. “Where is the weapon at?” one is heard asking in several videos.

    Several officers are heard rendering first aid, shouting for light and asking for tourniquets and packing gauze.

    None of the videos showed the inside of Walker’s car, though some show officers approaching the vehicle after the shooting. “It’s got a firearm in it,” one officer is heard saying.

    Police are seen in other footage trying to sequester police who fired at Walker while discussing collecting their body-worn cameras.

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  • New Jersey Attorney General’s Office takes control of Paterson Police Department, citing ‘crisis of confidence’ | CNN

    New Jersey Attorney General’s Office takes control of Paterson Police Department, citing ‘crisis of confidence’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office announced it has assumed control of the Paterson Police Department until new leadership can be installed, saying there is a “crisis of confidence” in the city’s law enforcement.

    “People throughout Paterson deserve a public safety system that protects and serves all members of its community, just as the members of the Paterson Police Department deserve adequate resources, support, and innovation from their leadership,” Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a release Monday.

    The top prosecutor said the decision is due to “a number of events and concerns” related to the police department, but he didn’t mention a specific case.

    Platkin appointed Isa Abbassi, a 25-year veteran of the New York Police Department, to lead the Paterson Police Department beginning in May.

    The state takeover follows a call from nearly 50 state groups, including the ACLU New Jersey, for the US Justice Department to investigate Paterson police after the fatal police shooting of 31-year-old Najee Seabrooks earlier this month.

    Seabrooks was apparently having a mental health crisis when he barricaded himself in a bathroom on March 3 and called police for help, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office. Family members told responding officers Seabrooks was hallucinating and behaving erratically, the statement said.

    The family and police officers tried to talk him out of the bathroom, where Seabrooks had knives and told officers he had a fully loaded gun and was threatening to shoot police, the statement said.

    In body camera footage, police can be seen pleading with Seabrooks to come out of the room and asking him to drop a knife.

    The attorney general’s office says Seabrooks lunged at police with the knife and was shot and killed.

    The case is under investigation, but New Jersey state law requires all officer-involved death investigations be brought before a grand jury, to determine whether the officers should be indicted.

    “All I want is justice for my son,” said Melissa Carter, Seabrooks’ mother, at a news conference Monday, reports CNN affiliate WCBS.

    Carter was one of the family members present when her son was killed.

    “I can’t sleep at night. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. It’s just painful, very painful. I won’t wish this on no mother,” Carter said.

    In a letter to the Justice Department, the state groups accused Paterson police of having “a history of excessive force” and referenced Seabrooks’ death.

    “A trend of widespread, unconstitutional (Paterson Police Department) misconduct is unmistakable – and has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown residents, depriving them of their civil rights,” the letter said.

    In September two Paterson police officers were sentenced to prison after each pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to violate individuals’ civil rights, using unreasonable and excessive force and filing a false police report, a release from the attorney general’s office said.

    From October 2020 to February 2023, there were 736 use-of-force reports submitted by Paterson Police to the state attorney general, according to a database maintained by the attorney general’s office.

    More than 55% of use-of-force reports in Paterson involved a Black person, though 23% of Paterson’s residents are Black, an analysis by NJ Spotlight News shows. Statewide, 45% of use-of-force reports involved a Black person, the analysis shows.

    ACLU New Jersey’s executive director, Amol Sinha, called Platkin’s announcement a “welcome step” but stressed the importance of giving community leaders a chance to work with the attorney general’s office during this time.

    “As we await next steps it is imperative that Paterson community leaders have a voice at the table,” Sinha, said in a statement Monday. “We hope that this process is a collaborative one that will help bring about trust and integrity to the Paterson Police Department, and safety from police violence for the people of Paterson. The community deserves nothing less.”

    Paterson Police Chief Bert Ribeiro, who was sworn in the same day Seabrooks was shot, has stepped down, CNN affiliate WCBS reported.

    Until Abbassi begins overseeing the police department in May, New Jersey State Police Major Fred Fife will act as interim officer-in-charge, the attorney general’s office said. Fife will be joined by State Police Captain Jafca Mandziuk, Assistant Attorney General Joseph Walsh and other public safety officials.

    “Chief Abbassi is an experienced, proven leader who has built community trust and achieved excellence through his innovation at the highest levels of law enforcement in this country,” Platkin said in his office’s release. “I am grateful for his service and I look forward to working with him to ensure public safety in Paterson.

    Platkin acknowledged that the change in leadership is just the first step in the long process of trying to regain public trust.

    “It will not immediately restore public confidence that the police are committed to providing every resident of Paterson with fair, just, and effective public safety,” he said. “Nor will it address the concerns of officers asked to do a hard and dangerous job in a community that – after years of fiscal challenges and a revolving door of police leadership – has lost faith in its police department, making the jobs of those officers even more difficult.”

    New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy applauded Platkin’s announcement, calling the takeover a “bold action.”

    “I am confident that his actions will ensure needed reform and give police officers in Paterson the resources, support, and training they need to serve their community,” Murphy said in a statement on Twitter.

    The attorney general said he aims to provide officers with more adequate support, resources and supervision.

    Platkin also announced a handful of new initiatives, including revising the state’s use of force policy and expanding an initiative that pairs crisis intervention-trained officers with mental health personnel on personal crisis calls.

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  • Philadelphia reaches $9.25 million settlement over police misconduct during the 2020 George Floyd protests | CNN

    Philadelphia reaches $9.25 million settlement over police misconduct during the 2020 George Floyd protests | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The City of Philadelphia has announced a $9.25 million settlement with hundreds of people who sued the city alleging “excessive and unreasonable force” by police during the civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

    The lawsuit filed on behalf of 343 plaintiffs alleged that the response by police left protesters with “physical injuries that, in some cases, required medical treatment and hospitalization, as well as emotional anguish” during a protest over police brutality on May 31, 2020 – just a few days after Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis.

    Philadelphia police officers used “tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets” against protesters “and in some cases arrested participants and bystanders” according to the lawsuit, which was filed by the Legal Defense Fund, the Abolitionist Law Center, and Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin LLP.

    The city also agreed to disengage from the 1033 program, “a federal program which arms state and local law enforcement with military weapons and equipment,” according to a statement by the Legal Defense Fund about the settlement.

    Under the agreement, the city will also give a grant of between $500,000 and $600,000 to Bread & Rose Community Fund to provide free mental health counseling and community-led programing for “all residents within a radius of 52nd Street corridor in West Philadelphia, not just plaintiffs in the lawsuit,” according to the city’s press release.

    The settlement did not include an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the defendants, and the court filings with the settlement terms indicate the city continues to deny any wrongdoing.

    How police respond to protests came under intense scrutiny during the massive protests that erupted nationwide after Floyd’s death as police in major cities tried to quell unrest with tear gas and rubber bullets.

    In the statement, the Legal Defense Fund said this is an “unprecedented settlement with the City of Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Police Department’s excessive, militaristic use of force” during the 2020 protests.

    Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said “the Philadelphia Police Department is a learning organization, and we remain dedicated to moving forward in meaningful and productive ways,” according to a news release from the city.

    “We will continue to work non-stop towards improving what we as police do to protect the first amendment rights of protestors, keep our communities and officers safe, and to ultimately prove that we are committed to a higher standard,” she continued.

    The settlement “features a recognition of the damage the PPD has done throughout West Philadelphia and it communicates the importance of centering the community in a path towards healing,” said Cara McClellan, director and practice associate professor of the Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic at the University of Pennsylvania.

    “Today’s settlement sets an important precedent for accountability in future cases,” she added.

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  • Ja Morant suspended 8 games by NBA for ‘conduct detrimental to the league’ | CNN

    Ja Morant suspended 8 games by NBA for ‘conduct detrimental to the league’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant has been suspended by the NBA for eight games without pay for “conduct detrimental to the league,” officials announced Wednesday.

    The punishment follows an incident where Morant was seen in an Instagram Live video holding a gun at a nightclub outside Denver.

    The league said an investigation “did not conclude that the gun at issue belonged to Morant, was brought by him into the nightclub or was displayed by him beyond a brief period. The investigation also did not find that Morant possessed the gun while traveling with the team or in any NBA facility.”

    Morant has missed the last five games following the incident.

    Earlier this month, the police department in Glendale, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, said the agency would not recommend charges against Morant.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

    Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the number of games Ja Morant has missed.

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  • Memphis officials to release more video from Tyre Nichols’ deadly beating today, after saying a 7th officer was fired | CNN

    Memphis officials to release more video from Tyre Nichols’ deadly beating today, after saying a 7th officer was fired | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Officials in Memphis are expected Wednesday to release about 20 more hours of video relating to January’s deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols – as well as some records of the city’s now-finished internal probe into 13 police officers and four fire department personnel, a Memphis official said.

    The anticipated release comes a day after the official revealed that a seventh police officer has been fired and others were suspended or left the force after the brutal encounter in the western Tennessee city. Previously, authorities said six officers were fired, five of whom have been criminally charged.

    The city’s internal investigations into the beatings have finished, so the city intends to release the additional video footage Wednesday afternoon, Memphis Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink told a city council committee Tuesday morning.

    The unreleased footage most notably will include audio of what was said after the beating and after an ambulance took Nichols to a hospital, and it could play an investigative role as his office contemplates additional charges, the county prosecutor previously told CNN.

    Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was repeatedly punched and kicked by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop and brief pursuit on foot on January 7. Nichols was hospitalized after the beating and died three days later.

    Five police officers, who are also Black, were fired following an internal investigation and were indicted on criminal charges January 26.

    Body camera videos and surveillance footage from the arrest were released on January 27, showing the severity of the beating to the public and drawing widespread condemnation from residents and police officials alike. The video shook a nation long accustomed to videos of police brutality – especially against people of color – and spurred protests and vigils in Memphis and other major US cities.

    The video released in January contradicted what officers said happened in the initial police report filed after Nichols’ beating, the county prosecutor said, and spurred renewed national debate on justice in policing and reform.

    In early February Shelby County prosecutor Steven Mulroy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer the video released in January are “the relevant parts” of the initial stop and the beating after the foot chase, but the yet-to-be-released footage could play a role in investigations.

    Potential charges of “false reporting” related to the initial police report were being investigated, Erica Williams, a spokesperson for Mulroy’s office, told CNN around the same time.

    When asked whether anyone new will face criminal charges now that the city’s investigation is finished, Williams told CNN on Tuesday: “Not at this time.” Mulroy’s office previously told CNN it would wait for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to conclude an investigation before deciding on more charges.

    The city will also release Wednesday some records related to the internal probes of the 13 police officers and four fire department personnel, including documents indicating what they were being investigated for, Sink said.

    Other investigative files have information that needs to be redacted, and will be posted online when that is completed, she added without giving a timeline.

    But Sink already announced the bottom line on Tuesday: Seven police officers were fired, three were suspended, one retired and two had their investigations dropped as result of the probes, she said.

    That was the first time the city announced a seventh officer was fired. That person’s name, and details about what the officer is accused of doing, weren’t immediately released.

    Also, the officer who retired likely would have been terminated, Sink said without elaborating about what that officer was accused of doing.

    The city has previously said that three Memphis fire department personnel who responded to the scene – two emergency medical technicians and a fire lieutenant – were fired, though none was criminally charged. On Tuesday, Sink said a fourth fire department worker was suspended. Sink did not elaborate.

    The two fired EMTs did not conduct a primary examination of Nichols for the first 19 minutes they were on scene, and the lieutenant stayed in a fire truck, according to a state emergency medical services board.

    A council member asked Sink whether anyone who struck Nichols was still part of either the police department or fire department.

    “No. All of those officers … have been charged criminally,” Sink said.

    Those five former Memphis police officers indicted in January were arraigned February 17 on criminal charges.

    Five former Memphis police officers face criminal chagres in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols. Top: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III. Bottom: Desmond Mills Jr., Justin Smith.

    Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr. each face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. Second-degree murder in Tennessee is considered a Class A felony punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison.

    Their attorneys entered not guilty pleas on their behalf. They are due back in court on May 1.

    The five charged officers were part of the department’s SCORPION unit, which was launched in 2021 to take on a rise in violent crime in Memphis. Shortly after video of Nichols’ arrest was released in January, Memphis police announced the unit would be permanently deactivated as a sign the department was taking “proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted.”

    Police in February identified a sixth officer who was fired. Preston Hemphill, who is White, saying he was accused of violating departmental policies including those covering personal conduct and truthfulness.

    Sink said February 7 that seven officers – beyond the six who’d been fired at the time – were facing disciplinary action for policy violations. Tuesday’s announcement covers the discipline decisions for all 13.

    In addition, two Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were at the scene were suspended for five days each without pay for their parts in the case, according to a sheriff’s office news release obtained by CNN affiliate WHBQ.

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  • Jury begins deliberating in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial | CNN

    Jury begins deliberating in Alex Murdaugh’s double murder trial | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The jury began to deliberate Thursday in the murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced attorney accused of fatally shooting his wife and son at their South Carolina hunting property in 2021.

    The 12 jurors will deliberate until they come to a unanimous verdict on two counts of murder and two weapons charges. Murdaugh, 54, has pleaded not guilty in the deaths of his wife Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and son Paul Murdaugh.

    Earlier Thursday, Murdaugh’s defense team delivered closing arguments and said law enforcement was too quick to pinpoint him as the main suspect in the killings by the dog kennels on the sprawling estate.

    “We believe that we’ve shown conclusively that (the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) failed miserably in investigating this case,” attorney Jim Griffin said. “And had they done a competent job, Alex would have been excluded from that circle (of suspects) a year ago or two years ago.”

    Over about two hours, Griffin also mocked the prosecution’s theory of motive, explained away Murdaugh’s lies, accused investigators of fabricating evidence and criticized the supposed timeline as unconvincing.

    Follow live updates

    In a rebuttal, prosecutor John Meadors took offense at the defense’s accusations of wrongdoing.

    “I find it offensive that the defense … is claiming law enforcement didn’t do their job, while he is withholding and obstructing justice by not saying ‘I was down at the kennels.’ ”

    The deliberations come after a six-week trial heavy on brutal gore, phone forensics, a mysterious blue tarp, extensive financial wrongdoing and the defendant’s own lies.

    Prosecutors called 61 witnesses over three weeks of testimony to show Murdaugh was the only person who had the motive, means and opportunity to kill his wife and son on their property known as Moselle in Islandton, South Carolina, on the night of June 7, 2021.

    With little to no direct evidence, such as bloody clothing or eyewitnesses, prosecutors have hinged their case on consequential video placing Murdaugh at the crime scene that night despite his repeated assertions otherwise.

    The defense case was highlighted by Murdaugh himself, who offered dramatic testimony over two days last week in which he flatly denied killing his wife and son. At the same time, he admitted he had lied to investigators about his whereabouts just prior to the killings due to paranoia from his drug addiction. He further admitted to stealing millions of dollars from his former clients and law firm and lying to cover his tracks.

    The stranger-than-fiction case has brought national attention – including Netflix and HBO Max documentaries – on Alex Murdaugh, the former personal injury attorney and member of a dynastic family in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather served as the local prosecutor consecutively from 1920 to 2006.

    Murdaugh was a partner at a powerful law firm with his name on it. But that prominence belied underlying issues, and the killings of his wife and son were followed by accusations of misappropriated funds, his resignation, a bizarre alleged suicide-for-hire and insurance scam plot, a stint in rehab for drug addiction, dozens of financial crimes, his disbarment and, ultimately, the murder charges.

    He separately faces 99 charges related to alleged financial crimes that will be adjudicated at a later trial.

    Defense attorney Jim Griffin, right, questions Alex Murdaugh, left, as he gives testimony during his murder trial at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023. The 54-year-old attorney is standing trial on two counts of murder in the shootings of his wife and son at their Colleton County, S.C., home and hunting lodge on June 7, 2021. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)

    See what happened when Alex Murdaugh took the stand

    Griffin’s closing arguments, taken together, sought to undercut the prosecution and raise reasonable doubt about the case.

    He said the agency failed to investigate hair found in Murdaugh’s wife’s hand, take fingerprint evidence, examine footwear and tire impressions, or test DNA on the victims’ clothes.

    “They had decided, ‘Unless we find somebody else, it’s going to be Alex,’” he said.

    The prosecution has argued Murdaugh’s motive in the killings was to distract and delay investigations into his financial wrongdoing. Griffin mocked that theory as nonsensical and noted that Murdaugh tried to kill himself in September 2021, calling that a “natural” response to being exposed.

    “It’s totally illogical, irrational and insane … for someone to kill their loved ones when their criminal conduct is exposed,” he argued.

    Griffin acknowledged Murdaugh had lied about being at the dog kennels where his wife and son were killed on the night of the murders. He said the lies were to hide his drug addiction and financial problems – not because he killed his family.

    “Because that’s what addicts do. Addicts lie,” Griffin said. “He lied because he had a closet full of skeletons, and he didn’t want any more scrutiny on him.”

    Griffin said that once Murdaugh’s years of financial fraud were exposed in September 2021, investigators began fabricating evidence about blood spatter on Murdaugh’s clothes and a blue jacket with gunshot residue.

    “I hate to say this, but the evidence is crystal clear, from that moment they started fabricating evidence against Alex. That’s an awful charge,” he said. “I don’t make that claim lightly.”

    Griffin attacked the prosecution’s assertion that the guns used in the killings were “family weapons,” saying there was no firm evidence to support that. He also criticized the prosecution’s proposed timeline of the killings, noting that it was mainly made up of information about whether Paul’s and Maggie’s phones were being used.

    “There’s no direct evidence of him doing anything,” he said.

    He further noted that the prosecution’s timeline indicated Paul and Maggie were killed at about 8:49 or 8:50 p.m. and that Murdaugh left the property for his mother’s house at 9:07 p.m., leaving only about 17 minutes to clean up the bloody scene.

    “He would have to be a magician to make all that evidence disappear,” Griffin said.

    murdaugh juror vpx

    See where jurors walked through Murdaugh crime scene

    In the prosecution’s telling, the motive was Murdaugh’s attempt to distract and delay investigations into his growing financial problems. The means were two family-owned weapons, prosecutors argued. And the opportunity was Murdaugh’s presence at the crime scene, as revealed in a pivotal video and confirmed by his own testimony, minutes before the murders.

    “This defendant … has fooled everyone, everyone, everyone who thought they were close to him,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury. “Everyone who thought they knew who he was, he’s fooled them all. He fooled Maggie and Paul, too, and they paid for it with their lives. Don’t let him fool you, too.”

    Waters first laid out a decade-long timeline of Murdaugh’s financial wrongdoing to show his motive in the killings.

    For one, the chief financial officer of his law firm testified she had confronted Murdaugh about missing funds on the morning of June 7, 2021.

    Second, Murdaugh was facing a lawsuit from the family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old woman who was killed in February 2019 when a boat allegedly driven by Paul, and owned by Murdaugh, crashed. A hearing in that civil case was scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to reveal his financial problems, prosecutors argued.

    Next, Waters worked to show that Murdaugh had been at the kennels that night and had lied about it.

    Murdaugh had long denied that he went to the kennels that night, but a video taken on Paul’s phone at 8:44 p.m. includes audio of Murdaugh’s voice in the background. After about a dozen friends and family members identified his voice on the video, Murdaugh took the stand and admitted he was there and that he he’d lied to police.

    “Why in the world would an innocent, reasonable father and husband lie about that, and lie about it so early? He didn’t know that (video) was there.”

    Further, Waters said Murdaugh had the “means” to commit the murders, in particular the weapons in the crime. Maggie was killed by a Blackout rifle and Paul was killed by a shotgun, and Waters said both were family weapons.

    Finally, the prosecution walked through Murdaugh’s series of lies about the case, particularly about his presence at the kennels. Murdaugh, he said, “lies convincingly and easily and he can do it at a drop of a hat.”

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  • Fox executives should be fired for ‘proven misconduct’ exposed in Dominion lawsuit, renowned Yale professor says | CNN Business

    Fox executives should be fired for ‘proven misconduct’ exposed in Dominion lawsuit, renowned Yale professor says | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The Fox Corporation board has a huge mess on its hands — and it needs to work quickly to clean it up.

    That’s according to Jeffrey A Sonnenfeld, the renowned professor and senior associate dean for leadership studies at the Yale School of Management. Sonnenfeld told CNN on Tuesday that the dramatic revelations brought to light by Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News — showing it knowingly peddled election lies to its audience — are cause for serious concern that could threaten the parent company.

    The filings, he said, showed members of the Fox Corp board had failed to act to prevent misconduct by Fox executives, and warned the disclosures will result in “likely” shareholder lawsuits, a possible SEC investigation into “deceptive practices of the board for conspiring to conceal known misconduct with material adverse impact,” and the potential loss of insurance protection for the company’s directors and officers.

    Sonnenfeld, who has advised hundreds of CEOs and recent US presidents, said the board should take immediate action, including the removal of high-ranking personnel, such as Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott, from their roles.

    A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

    “The board has a duty to remove such officials for proven misconduct,” Sonnenfeld told CNN by email, explaining that peddling known election lies — as “acknowledged in the company’s own sworn testimony” — damaged the outlet’s corporate reputation.

    “If the board does not act appropriately,” Sonnenfeld added, “it shows a failure of management oversight and jeopardizes their own directors and officers insurance protection with such gross conscious failure of diligent management oversight.”

    A lack of action by the board could result in additional legal exposure to Fox, Sonnenfeld warned. “Murdoch ‘only’ controls 39% of the company so any of the 61% of the shareholders can sue for misconduct, failure of management oversight, and conscious inadequate diligence,” he explained.

    In the latest Dominion legal filing, it was revealed that behind the scenes, Fox Corp board member Paul Ryan pleaded with Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch to prevent Trump’s bogus election claims from being broadcast to Fox News’ audience of millions. The former House speaker said that Fox News should “move on from Donald Trump” and “stop spouting election lies.”

    But Sonnenfeld said Ryan’s actions were not enough. In fact, he said Ryan’s “quiet dissent” was “cowardly, ineffective, and immoral,” and pointed out that board members have certain responsibilities under corporate governance law in Delaware, where Fox is incorporated.

    “The duties of loyalty and diligence are NOT to the management but to the owners,” Sonnenfeld said. “By silently going along with misconduct about which they are aware, all directors, including Paul Ryan, are guilty of complicity through their complacency.”

    Sonnenfeld said that if he were advising Fox’s board members, he would recommend an immediate investigation into “how far, wide, and deep the misconduct ran – with an outside, independent law firm reviewing the sworn testimony, now public, and conducting follow-ups.” Sonnenfeld said that Viet D Dinh, Fox’s chief legal and policy officer, and Kevin Lord, chief human resources officer, “should share whistleblower complaints and exit interviews with the board.”

    “The investigation should be completed with a report to the shareholders by May 1 indicating what disciplinary actions will be taken,” he said. Sonnenfeld also said the directors and officers insurers “should be contacted to see” if board members “are still protected.”

    Nell Minow, vice chair at ValueEdge Advisors and expert on corporate governance, told CNN she agreed with everything that Sonnenfeld said. Minow said that she would tell concerned board members to “contact their largest shareholders to hear their suggestions for new independent directors.”

    Minow also recommended Fox News immediately move to settle its case with Dominion, “even if it means changing the name from News to Not News and daily free ads 10 times a day in prime time for 10 years about the integrity and reliability of Dominion.”

    Spokespeople for Fox Corp and Fox News, which have claimed Dominion has cherrypicked quotes to use against them, did not respond to requests for comment. Fox News has previously said it was “proud” of its 2020 election coverage, which is a statement that only grows more remarkable by the day.

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  • How the prosecution of Alex Murdaugh has tried to overcome a lack of direct evidence | CNN

    How the prosecution of Alex Murdaugh has tried to overcome a lack of direct evidence | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    In opening statements of Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial, the prosecution went into a lengthy defense of the value and importance of circumstantial evidence.

    “A lot of times people hear, ‘Oh, it’s just a circumstantial case,’ but the law says otherwise,” prosecutor Creighton Waters told the jury. “The law says circumstantial evidence is just as good as direct evidence.”

    The lines were a preview of what has become clear through three weeks of the trial: There is no direct evidence – no witnesses, no smoking guns, no blood-soaked clothes – tying the disgraced former South Carolina attorney to the murders of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and son, Paul Murdaugh.

    Instead, the prosecution’s case against Alex Murdaugh has focused on circumstantial evidence about his opportunity and motive. In particular, they have tried to prove he was at the crime scene that night, worked to show he lied to investigators and painted a picture of a fraudster who killed his wife and son as a desperate bid to distract the investigations into his actions.

    For the defense, that evidence amounts to little more than “speculation” and “conjecture,” attorney Dick Harpootlian argued. They have highlighted Murdaugh’s loving relationships with his family and ridiculed the prosecution’s focus on irrelevant financial misconduct.

    “They’ve got a whole lot more evidence about financial misconduct than they have about a murder and evidence of guilt in a murder case,” defense lawyer Jim Griffin said in court during a debate on the relevance of this testimony.

    Murdaugh, 54, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and weapons charges. Separately, he faces 99 charges for an array of alleged financial misconduct that will be adjudicated at a future trial.

    Legal experts who have followed the trial told CNN the prosecution’s lack of direct evidence makes it harder to convict – though certainly not impossible.

    “It does make the case more difficult,” said trial attorney Misty Marris. “But at some point, if the prosecutors have enough evidence that they can put together that story, and show motive and opportunity, it can certainly rise to the level needed to get a conviction.

    Sara Azari, a defense attorney who has followed the case, has been unimpressed by much of the evidence presented.

    “Jurors want science, jurors want DNA, jurors want something that’s persuasive,” Azari said. “But because (prosecutors) lack it … their focus is now on the tenuous motive and the lies after the fact, but neither of those things … substitute the evidence that they need.”

    With the prosecution having wrapped its case, here’s a closer look at the prosecution’s three main arguments to convict.

    Trial witness: ‘100% certain’ Murdaugh’s voice is on video made before killings

    One of the prosecution’s most compelling pieces of evidence is recorded audio that they say places Murdaugh at the crime scene on the night of the murders.

    A video, just short of a minute long, was filmed on Paul’s phone starting at 8:44 p.m. on June 7, 2021, just minutes before Paul and Maggie were shot dead, according to Lt. David Britton Dove, a supervisor in the computer crimes center at the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

    The video focuses on one of their dogs and appears to have been recorded at the kennels at their family home in Islandton. In the background, three different voices can be heard in the footage, and family friends identified those voices as that of Paul, Maggie and Alex Murdaugh.

    Alex Murdaugh’s presence there contradicted his assertion to police that he was not at the kennels that night, prosecutors said.

    Murdaugh “told anyone who would listen he was never there,” the prosecution said in opening statements. “The evidence will show that he was there. He was at the murder scene with the two victims.”

    In his own opening statement, Harpootlian said the audio simply showed Murdaugh and his wife having a “normal discussion” with “no animosity.” Paul is “very happy,” Harpootlian said. “Nobody’s down there threatening him. Daddy is not pulling out a shotgun and killing him.”

    In the aftermath of the murders, as seen on police body-cam footage, Murdaugh told investigators that he was asleep at his home and went to visit his mother in Alameda at the time of the killings.

    The prosecution has used the video from Paul’s phone to try to disprove his assertion that he was asleep, and other testimony has also cut into his claims about how long he had been with his mother.

    “It’s up to you,” Waters, the prosecutor, said, “to decide whether or not he’s trying to manufacture an alibi.”

    Shelly Smith, a home care worker who was taking care of Murdaugh’s mother, testified that Murdaugh indeed visited his mother’s home for about 15 to 20 minutes on the night of the murders. A few days later, they again saw each other and Murdaugh insisted that he had been there 30 to 40 minutes on the night of the murders, she testified.

    “Was he there 30 or 40 minutes that night?” asked the prosecutor.

    “Not to my recall,” Smith replied.

    Other evidence focused on the series of calls and texts Murdaugh made to his wife after the killings. A tech expert testified that those calls were missing from Murdaugh’s call log, indicating they had been manually deleted.

    Alex Murdaugh is interviewed by authorities June 8, 2021, after his wife and son were found killed.

    Father charged with killing his wife and son. See his interview with investigators

    Finally, state prosecutors have tried to put forth an adequate explanation of why Murdaugh – described as a loving and devoted family man – would slaughter his wife and son.

    A series of witnesses have accused Murdaugh of extensive financial wrongdoing at his namesake law firm and presented evidence that he had lied to nearly everyone around him in a yearslong fraud. A “day of reckoning” was coming from several different angles, so he killed his family to distract and delay those financial investigations, the prosecution has argued.

    Two investigations in particular that could have exposed Murdaugh’s wrongdoing were coming to a head at the time of the killings.

    For one, the chief financial officer of his law firm testified she had confronted Murdaugh about missing funds on the morning of June 7, 2021, hours before the killings. After the murders, the internal investigation into the funds took a backseat.

    “We weren’t going to go in there and harass him about money when we were worried about his mental state and the fact that his family had been killed,” the CFO, Jeanne Seckinger, testified.

    Second, Murdaugh was facing a lawsuit from the family of Mallory Beach, a 19-year-old who was killed in February 2019 when a boat, owned by Murdaugh and allegedly driven by Paul, crashed. A hearing in that civil case was scheduled for June 10, 2021, and had the potential to reveal his financial problems, prosecutors argued.

    Indeed, that “day of reckoning” didn’t come for another three months, when his law firm again confronted him about misappropriated funds, leading to his resignation, a bizarre murder-for-hire and insurance scam plot, a stint in rehab for a drug addiction, dozens of financial crimes, his disbarment and, ultimately, the murder charges.

    Though this financial evidence is not directly related to the murder charges, the judge overseeing the case ruled to allow it in, saying it was “so intimately connected” with the state’s case “that proof of it is essential to complete the story.” He has instructed jurors to only consider this financial evidence as part of the motive and not as a broader criticism of the defendant’s character.

    That’s easier said than done, Marris, the legal expert, told CNN.

    “There will be an instruction (to the jury) that – ‘just because he’s a liar … doesn’t mean he committed murder,’ but in real life, the jury is hearing what it’s hearing,” she said. “They’re going to be considering one of the prosecution’s key themes, is that Alex Murdaugh was lying right from the beginning of this to cover his tracks.”

    Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Alex Murdaugh’s age. He is 54.

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  • ‘A recipe for disaster.’ Deadly encounter in Memphis comes at a critical time in American policing | CNN

    ‘A recipe for disaster.’ Deadly encounter in Memphis comes at a critical time in American policing | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Since the night Tyre Nichols was kicked, pepper-sprayed, punched and struck with a baton by Memphis police officers, six cops have been fired and five of them charged with murder. Seven others face internal disciplinary charges.

    Nichols died three days after the January 7 traffic stop and subsequent fatal encounter captured on video and principally involving five officers with two to six years on the job.

    The death of the 29-year-old Black man comes at a critical juncture in American law enforcement, as departments across the country – including the Memphis PD – struggle to recruit qualified officers and fill shifts, lure candidates with signing bonuses worth thousands of dollars, and at times curtail standards and training in a desperate bid to strengthen patrols amid rising gun violence, according to law enforcement experts.

    “That is a recipe for disaster,” said Kenneth Corey, a retired NYPD chief who once ran the training division. “We’ve seen it happen before. You couldn’t fill seats. You lowered standards. And now you’ve got scandal and use of force. And when you look at the individuals involved you say, we never would have hired this guy once upon a time.”

    In the weeks since authorities released video of Nichols’ brutal beating, little information has come out about the recruitment and training of the five former officers facing murder charges – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr.

    The five men were part of a now disbanded specialized street crime unit formed just over a year ago as part of the city’s strategy to combat rising violence. The SCORPION unit focused on homicides, robberies, assaults and other felonies.

    Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, said Nichols’ killing raises questions about “how those officers were trained and supervised and selected.”

    “Over time you always want to look at the backgrounds of those officers – that will be important. The hiring process – that will be important,” he said. “In this case we don’t know enough yet.”

    Bean, 24, was commissioned as an officer in January 2021, personnel records show. His attorney has not responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

    Haley, 30, was commissioned as an officer in January 2021, the records show. He is a former correctional officer. His attorney has not respond to requests for comment.

    Martin, 30, joined the department in 2018, according to the records. He will plead not guilty, according to his attorney, William Massey, who said: “No one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die.”

    Mills, 32, a former jailer in Mississippi and Tennessee, joined the department as a recruit in March 2017, the records show. He, too, plans to plea not guilty, said Blake Ballin, his attorney, who described Mills as “devastated” and “remorseful.”

    Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told CNN last month that Nichols’ death was indicative of “a gap somewhere” in the specialized street crime unit.

    “We train and we retrain these officers, just like specialized units around the country,” she said. “These officers working in specialized units, you always need to make sure that the supervision is there and present.”

    On January 28, one day after the release of the video, Memphis PD announced that it had permanently disbanded the unit.

    Davis said the department was unaware of any evidence the unit had previously engaged in misconduct but added that an investigation is ongoing.

    The five former Memphis officers charged in Nichols’ death also are accused of assaulting another young Black man just three days before the fatal police encounter, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

    The suit accuses the city of failing to prevent or address an alleged pattern of policing abuses by the SCORPION unit, which it claims operated like a “gang of vigilantes” without adequate training or supervision. Police declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing ongoing litigation.

    The Shelby County District Attorney’s office in Memphis said it will review all cases involving the five officers charged with Nichols’ death.

    Davis, speaking at a Memphis city council meeting Tuesday, said training was not an issue with the unit. Instead, she said, “egos” and a “wolf pack mentality” contributed to the killing.

    “Culture is not something that changes overnight. You know, there is a saying in law enforcement that ‘culture eats policy for lunch.’ We don’t want to just have good policies because policies can be navigated around,” she said. “We want to ensure that we have the right people in place to ensure our culture is evolving.”

    Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn

    In this still from video released by the City of Memphis, officers from the Memphis Police Department beat Tyre Nichols on a street corner.

    These are the moments that led to Tyre Nichols’ death

    Nichols’ death comes as many police departments in the US have been reeling from an exodus of officers due to resignations and retirements and scrambling to attract new recruits. The staffing crisis has been exacerbated by high-profile cases such as the 2020 murder of George Floyd that have put policing under scrutiny and made it a frequent target of protests and moves to decrease funding.

    “The pandemic impacted recruiting and then George Floyd’s murder really was a moment in time that made prospective police applicants think twice – Is this a job for me?” Wexler said.

    “And now, unfortunately, with the Tyre Nichols killing you simply compounded what was already arguably a challenging environment to hire a police officer.”

    Wexler’s group, in a 2021 survey, found that retirements had risen 45% that year since 2019. Resignations had jumped 18% in that two-year period.

    The number of officers on the Memphis Police Department dropped by more than 22% since 2011 – from 2,449 in September 2011 to a low of 1,895 officers last December, according to the Memphis Data Hub website.

    The department was budgeted for 2,300 officers last year, CNN affiliate WMC reported. In 2015, nearly 200 Memphis police officers resigned over changes to pension and benefit plans, according to WMC.

    “It had gotten to the point that we were having sergeants as acting lieutenants,” said Alvin Davis, a former Memphis police lieutenant and recruiter who retired last year. “Hundreds of people did it over a period of time because we didn’t have enough supervisors. So many people were running out the door.”

    In this still from video released by the City of Memphis, officers stand around as Tyre Nichols leans up against a car after being detained and beaten on January 7.

    Like other departments around the country, the Memphis PD in 2021 began offering $15,000 signing bonuses and $10,000 in relocation assistance. Additionally, requirements on college credits, military experience and employment history have been loosened, WMC reported.

    “Departments around the country … are offering between $25,000 and $30,000 signing bonuses,” Wexler said. “You’ve got a national shortage of applicants which has forced police departments to do unprecedented things like offering signing bonuses and, in some cases, modifying the standards for hiring.”

    Greg Umbach, associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said there is a direct correlation between higher standards for new recruits and lower incidents of bad behavior.

    “We know from decades of research that the number of cops meeting higher qualifications, most notably a college degree, matters far more than anything else, for the number of civilian complaints a department gets,” Umbach said.

    And if the pipeline of good officers is low, Umbach said, then so is the quality of supervision – a reality that has plagued the Memphis Police Department and other agencies nationwide.

    “Any police sergeant watching that video, their first thought is, ‘My God, where was the supervision and why did they think this was okay,’” Umbach said.

    The Memphis Police Department urges recruits to

    Davis, the former lieutenant and recruiter, asked a similar question about supervision.

    “If you pepper-spray someone or you tase someone, you’re supposed to call a supervisor,” said Davis, who spent 22 years on the job. “That’s just policy. Why they didn’t, I can’t say.”

    But, Davis said, the behavior of the former officers who beat Nichols did not entirely surprise him – given the curtailed training and standards, shortage of skilled supervisors and growing number of officers lured by monetary incentives and without the requisite experience being deployed on the city’s streets.

    “The standards kept dropping and dropping to bring people in,” said Davis, who was in charge of recruiting. “And then they start throwing money out to lure people in and this is what you got.”

    He added, “Just about everybody who came, the first thing they asked us was about was the money. How long did they have to stay on the job? Do I have to do a year? Two years? Nobody is trying to make a career out of it. It was the money.”

    The Memphis PD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on training, recruitment and staffing issues.

    “It’s not the job that it used to be, when you felt like you’re the ‘best in blue’ and you have your head up because you really feel like you accomplished something,” said Davis, referring to the Memphis Police Department’s longtime “Join the best in blue” recruitment campaign. “It’s not that kind of job anymore.”

    It’s too early to tell exactly what factors contributed to the behavior of the former officers who beat Nichols to death on January 7, law enforcement experts said.

    Wexler and others pointed to previous policing scandals that were preceded by periods of hiring under lax standards and curtailed training.

    In the late 1980s, nearly 10% of the officers in the Miami Police Department were suspended or fired after a corruption scandal involving rogue officers who became known as the “River Cops.” Nearly 20 former officers were convicted on various state and federal charges, including using their police powers as a racketeering enterprise to commit murder.

    Atlanta police officers keep an eye on marchers during a rally on January 28 protesting the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols.

    In 1990, an investigation into the hiring and training of police officers in Washington, DC by the General Accounting Office found that a hiring rush during the previous decade – prompted by a wave of drug and gun violence – led to cutting corners on recruiting, background checks and training.

    Eight years later, another report by the GOA, the investigative arm of Congress, examined drug-related police corruption and said “rapid recruitment initiatives” coupled with loosening education requirements and inadequate training and supervision “might have permitted the hiring of recruits who might not otherwise have been hired.”

    “These are all lessons of history,” said Corey, the former NYPD chief. “You have to make the profession attractive to the type of people you want to recruit. It’s not that people have lost interest in policing. They just don’t see it as a viable occupation.”

    He added, “What we ask of our cops is that they think like lawyers, speak like psychologists, and perform like athletes but we pay them as common laborers. A starting officer in New York City makes $42,000 a year, which means about $20 dollars an hour. It also means that at McDonald’s they could be making $15 dollars an hour with none of the stress, trauma or risk.”

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  • MLK invoked as Tyre Nichols’ life is celebrated in song and tributes in Memphis | CNN

    MLK invoked as Tyre Nichols’ life is celebrated in song and tributes in Memphis | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Mourners, from Vice President Kamala Harris to the activist the Rev. Al Sharpton, on Wednesday celebrated the life of Tyre Nichols, whose death at the hands of police in Memphis led to second-degree murder charges against five officers.

    “Mothers around the world, when their babies are born, pray to God when they hold that child, that that body and that life will be safe for the rest of his life,” Harris said to applause during Nichols’ funeral service in a packed Memphis sanctuary.

    “And when we look at this situation, this is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe.”

    Nichols, 29, who was Black, was subdued yet continuously beaten after a traffic stop by Memphis police on January 7. He died three days later.

    “The people of our country mourn with you,” Harris told Nichols’ family.

    Sharpton, in a painfully familiar role, delivered an impassioned eulogy that paid tribute to Nichols’ life and served as a clarion call for justice.

    Sharpton said he visited the Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis in 1968. He called out the five Black former officers charged in Nichols’ death.

    “There’s nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us that fight to open doors, that you walked through those doors and act like the folks we had to fight for to get you through them doors. You didn’t get on the police department by yourself,” Sharpton said.

    If Nichols had been white, Sharpton said, “you wouldn’t have beat him like that,” referring to the five former officers.

    “You don’t fight crime by becoming criminals yourself… That ain’t the police. That’s punks.”

    The reverend invoked King’s 1968 “Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, where King said he had reached the peak and seen the Promised Land. The former cops accused of killing Nichols, he said, failed to live up to that legacy. “He expected you to bring us on to the Promised Land,” Sharpton said.

    Flanked by the Rev. Al Sharpton and her husband, Rodney Wells, RowVaughn Wells speaks during the funeral service for her son Wednesday.

    RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, remembered her son as “a beautiful person” and echoed others at the celebration of life in calling for passage of the George Floyd Policing Act.

    “There should be no other child that should suffer the way my son and all the other parents here (who) have lost their children,” she said.

    Nichols’ older sister, Keyana Dixon, recalled looking after her younger brothers.

    “With Ty, I didn’t mind,” she said. “He never wanted anything but to watch cartoons and a big bowl of cereal. So it was pretty easy to watch him.”

    Dixon said all she wants is her “baby brother back.’

    Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Nichols’ family, said the charges against the five ex-officers in Nichols’ death set a precedent. Within 20 days of his death, the former officers were indicted on charges that included murder and kidnapping.

    “We can count to 20 and every time you kill one of us on video, we’re going to say the legacy of Tyre Nichols is that we have equal justice swiftly,” he said.

    Tyre Nichols, 29, was a free spirit with a passion for skateboarding and capturing sunsets on his camera.

    For the day, mourners at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church shifted the focus from the heart-wrenching footage of the beating that Nichols in a hospital bed with his face badly swollen and bruised before his death, sparking protests across the country.

    Harris was joined other senior level Biden administration officials, including White House Director for the Office of Public Engagement Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta, and Senior Adviser to the President Mitch Landrieu.

    Representing other Black people killed by police, Tamika Palmer – whose daughter Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, home by police during a botched raid in March 2020 – attended the service.

    Also there was Philonise Floyd, the younger brother of George Floyd, whose name reverberated across the nation following his May 2020 death after an ex-cop Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck and back for more than 9 minutes.

    “The family needs all the support that they can get,” Gwen Carr, whose son, Eric Garner, died after being placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer in 2014, told CNN Wednesday before attending the service. “It’s so fresh for them but for me, it just digs into old wounds.”

    The service was scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. local time but was pushed back because of bad weather and travel delays. It began shortly after 1 p.m. on the first day of Black History Month with African tribal drummers and a gospel choir.

    With Nichols’ black casket, draped in a white bouquet of flowers, as a centerpiece, the young man was praised by the Rev. J. Lawrence Turner as “a good person, a beautiful soul, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, a human being – gone too soon.”

    Mourners watched slide shows of a smiling Nichols at different times in his life. A photo montage opened with a quote from Nichols: “My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens.”

    The Rev. Al Sharpton introduces the family of Tyre Nichols.

    Tiffany Rachal, the mother of Jalen Randle, a 29-year-old Black man killed by a Houston police officer last year, offered her condolences to the family before singing, “Lord I will lift my eyes to the hills.”

    On Tuesday, Sharpton and Nichols’ family gathered at the Mason Temple Church of God In Christ headquarters in Memphis – where King Jr. delivered his famous “Mountaintop” speech the night before he was killed.

    “We will continue in Tyre’s name to head up to Martin’s mountaintop,” Sharpton said from the “sacred ground” where MLK delivered his speech 55 years ago.

    Tyre Nichols' funeral service took place less than a week after Friday evening's public release of footage of the brutal attack on him.

    Sharpton reflected on the family’s loss as their son’s name is added to a vast pantheon of Black people who died after encounters with police.

    “They will never ever recover from the loss,” Sharpton said.

    Before Wednesday’s service, Dan Beazley, 61, carried a towering wooden cross over his shoulder outside the Memphis church. He said he drove 12 hours – including through an ice storm – from Northville, Michigan, to pay his respects and shine a light.

    Dan Beazley, 61, left, carries wooden cross outside Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church.

    Nichols has been described as a devoted son who had tattooed his mother’s name on his arm, a loving father to a 4-year-old boy, and a free spirit with a passion for skateboarding and capturing sunsets on his camera.

    Public outrage over the disturbing arrest video led to firings or disciplinary action against other public servants who were at the scene, including the firings of three Memphis Fire Department personnel. Two sheriff’s deputies have been put on leave. Additionally, two more police officers have been placed on leave.

    Nichols’ funeral took place less than a week after Friday evening’s public release of footage of the attack on him shook a nation long accustomed to videos of police brutality, especially against people of color.

    The brutal attack sparked largely peaceful protests from New York to Los Angeles as well as renewed calls for police reform and scrutiny of specialized police units that target guns in high crime areas.

    Up to 20 hours of video recordings haven’t been released, Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy told CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” on Wednesday. The audio from the recordings is “probably more useful” in some cases than what the video shows, Mulroy said.

    He didn’t specify what can be heard on the recordings, which he said include sound captured after the beating took place.

    The release of that footage will be determined by city officials, he added.

    The prosecutor said he has asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to expedite its investigation into the other emergency responders – those besides the five already indicted – to see whether any charges are warranted for them. Those people include the officers who filed the paperwork, he said.

    Nichols was the baby of his family, the youngest of four children, according to RowVaughn Wells.

    He moved to Memphis from California right before the Covid-19 pandemic and remained there after the mandatory lockdowns prompted by the health crisis, his mother has said.

    Nichols was a regular at a Germantown, Tennessee, Starbucks where he befriended a group of people who set aside their cellphones at a table and talked mostly about sports, particularly his beloved San Francisco 49ers.

    His visits to Starbucks were typically followed by a nap before heading to a his job at FedEx. He would come home for dinner during his break.

    Nichols was also a fixture among the skateboarders at Shelby Farms Park, where he photographed memorable sunsets, according to his mother.

    In fact, taking pictures served as a form of self-expression that writing could never capture for Nichols, who had written on his photography website that it helped him look “at the world in a more creative way.”

    He preferred capturing landscapes.

    “I hope to one day let people see what i see and to hopefully admire my work based on the quality and ideals of my work,” he wrote.

    Before moving to Memphis, Nichols lived in Sacramento, California, where a friend recalled that “skating gave him wings.”

    On Wednesday, one song performed at the end of the service was a gospel version of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come.”

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  • A 6th Memphis officer is off the force, and 3 fire department workers are fired as new details emerge from the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols | CNN

    A 6th Memphis officer is off the force, and 3 fire department workers are fired as new details emerge from the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic videos and descriptions of violence.



    CNN
     — 

    [Breaking news update, published at 5:55 p.m. ET]

    Three Memphis Fire Department personnel who responded to the Tyre Nichols beating have been fired, according to the department.

    [Previous story, published at 5:04 p.m. ET]

    Fallout from the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols now includes a sixth Memphis officer removed from duties, demands for more criminal charges against officers and calls for nationwide police reform.

    Officer Preston Hemphill “was relieved of duty with the other officers” involved in the January 7 encounter with Nichols, Memphis police Maj. Karen Rudolph said Monday.

    Hemphill has actually been on administrative leave since the beginning of the investigation, Memphis police spokesperson Kimberly Elder told CNN. Elder declined to say whether Hemphill is being paid or whether any other officers were put on leave.

    Body cam footage reveals Hemphill fired a Taser at Nichols and saying, “One of them prongs hit the bastard.”

    Later, Hemphill says to another officer: “I hope they stomp his ass.”

    Five other Memphis officers have been fired and face charges of second-degree murder in connection with the beating death of Nichols.

    Hemphill has not been charged. “He was never present at the second scene” that escalated to the beating, and Hemphill has been cooperating with the investigation, his attorney Lee Gerald said.

    Attorneys for Nichols’ family wonder why authorities were quick to fire five Black police officers and charge them with murder – while staying relatively quiet about Hemphill role in the encounter.

    “The news today from Memphis officials that Officer Preston Hemphill was reportedly relieved of duty weeks ago, but not yet terminated or charged, is extremely disappointing. Why is his identity and the role he played in Tyre’s death just now coming to light?” attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said in a statement Monday.

    “It certainly begs the question why the White officer involved in this brutal attack was shielded and protected from the public eye.”

    But officials knew releasing video footage of Nichols’ beating without filing charges against officers could be “incendiary,” Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Sunday. “The best solution was to expedite the investigation and to expedite the consideration of charges so that the charges could come first and then the release of the video,” he said.

    Video of the gruesome beating “outraged” the Memphis police chief. The footage showed “acts that defy humanity,” Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said.

    The attack has fueled broader public scrutiny of how US police use force, especially against people of color. And weeks after Nichols’ death, many questions remain. Among them:

    • Whether more officers will face charges or other: Memphis City Council member Frank Colvett said he wanted to know why more officers at the scene of Nichols’ beating scene had not been disciplined or suspended.

    It’s also not clear whether Hemphill or others will face criminal charges. “We are looking at all of the officers and first responders at the scene,” Shelby County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Erica Williams said Monday. “They could face charges, or they could not, but we are looking at everyone.”

    It was “unprecedented” for indictment charges against the officers to come within weeks, said Mulroy, the Shelby County district attorney.

    • How Memphis’ police chief will fare: While some have praised Chief Davis’ swift action in the case, she also created the controversial SCORPION unit that the charged officers were linked to. “There is a reckoning coming for the police department and for the leadership,” Colvett said. “She’s going to have to answer not just to the council but to the citizens – and really the world.”

    • What happens to fire and sheriff’s personnel: Two Memphis Fire Department employees who were part of Nichols’ initial care were relieved of duty, pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

    And two deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office have been put on leave pending an investigation.

    • If Nichols’ death spurs national-level police reform: The Congressional Black Caucus has asked for a meeting with President Joe Biden this week to push for negotiations on police reform.

    Video of the fatal encounter is difficult to watch. It starts with a traffic stop and later shows officers repeatedly beating Nichols with batons, punching him and kicking him – even as his hands are restrained behind his back at one point.

    Nichols is heard calling for his mother as he was kicked and pepper-sprayed.

    He was left slumped to the ground in handcuffs. Another 23 minutes passed before a stretcher arrived at the scene. Nichols was hospitalized and died three days later.

    “All of these officers failed their oath,” said Crump, one of the attorneys representing the Nichols family, “They failed their oath to protect and serve.”

    At the residential street corner where Nichols was beaten, mourners created a makeshift memorial. Across the country, protesters marched in cities including New York, Atlanta, Boston and Los Angeles.

    Nichols’ family remembered him as a good son and father who enjoyed skateboarding, photography and sunsets. They recalled his smile and hugs and mourned the moments they’ll never have again.

    Family members promised to “keep saying his name until justice is served.”

    Protesters gather Saturday in New York to denounce the police beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis.

    The five fired officers charged in connection with Nichols’ beating – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. – are expected to be arraigned February 17.

    From top left: Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley. From bottom left: Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean.

    Mills Jr. didn’t cross lines “that others crossed” during the confrontation with Nichols and instead was a “victim” of the system he worked within, his attorney, Blake Ballin, told CNN.

    Martin’s attorney, William Massey, said “no one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die.”

    Attorneys for the other former officers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    The Memphis Police Association declined to comment on the terminations beyond saying the city of Memphis and Nichols’ family “deserve to know the complete account of the events leading up to his death and what may have contributed to it,” the union said in a statement.

    The Shelby County district attorney’s office said each of the five fired officers face seven counts, including: second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping in possession of a deadly weapon, official misconduct and official oppression.

    But a second-degree murder charge – which requires intent to kill – might be harder to prove than a first-degree felony murder charge, said Alexis Hoag-Fordjour, assistant professor of law and co-director of the Center for Criminal Justice at Brooklyn Law School.

    “For first-degree felony murder, it means that a murder happened in conjunction with an underlying felony,” said Hoag-Fordjour, noting she practiced law in Tennessee.

    “Here, every single charge that the Memphis district attorney charged these five individuals with were felonies. And the underlying felony that would support a first-degree murder charge – felony murder – is kidnapping.”

    The kidnapping counts against officers may seem unusual because “we obviously deputize law enforcement officials to make seizures, to make arrests,” Hoag-Fordjour told “CNN This Morning” on Monday.

    “But at this point … what would have been legitimate behavior crossed the line into illegitimacy.”

    While first-degree felony murder might be easier to prove, Hoag-Fordjour said, second-degree murder convictions are still possible.

    Under Tennessee law, a person can be convicted of second-degree murder if they could be reasonably certain their actions would result in somebody’s death, Hoag-Fordjour said.

    And some of the blows dealt to Nichols – including kicks to the head and strikes with a baton while he was subdued on the ground – could be deemed deadly, she said.

    The five fired officers charged in Nichols’ beating were members of the now-scrapped SCORPION (Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods) unit, Memphis police spokesperson Maj. Karen Rudolph said Saturday.

    Hemphill, the officer placed on administrative leave, was also a member of the SCORPION unit, a source familiar with his assignment confirmed to CNN.

    The unit, launched in 2021, put officers into areas where police were tracking upticks in violent crime.

    “That reprehensible conduct we saw in that video, we think this was part of the culture of the SCORPION unit,” Crump said.

    “We demanded that they disbanded immediately before we see anything like this happen again,” he said. “It was the culture that was just as guilty for killing Tyre Nichols as those officers.”

    Memphis police will permanently deactivate the unit. “While the heinous actions of a few casts a cloud of dishonor on the title SCORPION, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department take proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted,” the department said.

    Colvett supported the dismantling of the SCORPION unit.

    “I think the smart move and the mayor is correct in shutting it down,” the council member said. “These kinds of actions are not representative of the Memphis Police Department.”

    The case should give the city a chance to “dig deeper” into community and police relations, City Council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas said.

    “We saw a very peaceful and direct sense of protest in the city of Memphis, and I think it’s because maybe we do have faith and hope that the system is going to get it right this time,” Easter-Thomas said.

    Crump called on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the Democratic-controlled House in 2021 but t.

    “The brutal beating of Tyre Nichols was murder and is a grim reminder that we still have a long way to go in solving systemic police violence in America,” Congressional Black Caucus chair Rep. Steven Horsford said Sunday in a statement.

    The Tennessee State Conference NAACP president applauded Davis for “doing the right thing” by not waiting six months to a year to fire the officers who beat Tyre Nichols.

    But she had had harsher words for Congress: “By failing to craft and pass bills to stop police brutality, you’re writing another Black man’s obituary,” said Gloria Sweet-Love. “The blood of Black America is on your hands. So, stand up and do something.”

    On the state level, two Democratic lawmakers said they intend to file police reform legislation ahead of the general assembly’s Tuesday filing deadline.

    The bills would seek to address mental health care for law enforcement officers, hiring, training, discipline practices and other topics, said Tennessee state Rep. G.A. Hardaway, who represents a part of Memphis and Shelby County.

    While Democrats hold the minority, with 24 representatives compared to 99 GOP representatives, this legislation is not partisan and should pass on both sides of the legislature, Rep. Joe Towns Jr. said.

    “You would be hard-pressed to look at this footage (of Tyre Nichols) and see what happened to that young man, OK, and not want to do something,” he said. “If a dog in this county was beaten like that, what the hell would happen?”

    Correction: An earlier version of this story had the wrong first name for Tyre Nichols.

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  • Video of Nichols’ beating prompts renewed calls for police reform | CNN Politics

    Video of Nichols’ beating prompts renewed calls for police reform | CNN Politics

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    A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.



    CNN
     — 

    New York to San Francisco. Baltimore to Portland. Boston to Los Angeles, and countless cities in between.

    Protesters once again took to the streets over the weekend to decry police brutality after the release of video capturing the violent Memphis police beating that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.

    On Sunday morning, Nichols’ family attorney made note of the outrage as he aimed a simple but pointed message at Washington.

    “Shame on us if we don’t use [Nichols’] tragic death to finally get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed,” Ben Crump said on CNN’s “State of Union.”

    President Joe Biden referenced the failed legislation in his statement about Nichols on Friday, and many leaders – from the chairs of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio – are acknowledging a potential role for federal legislation.

    The Congressional Black Caucus is requesting a meeting with Biden this week to push for negotiations. “We are calling on our colleagues in the House and Senate to jumpstart negotiations now and work with us to address the public health epidemic of police violence that disproportionately affects many of our communities,” CBC Chair Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democrat, wrote in a statement on Sunday.

    Gloria Sweet-Love, the Tennessee State Conference NAACP president, called on Congress to step up during a Sunday evening news conference in Memphis. “By failing to craft and pass bills to stop police brutality, you’re writing another Black man’s obituary. The blood of Black America is on your hands. So stand up and do something.”

    But with Congress as divided as ever, it appears public outrage is once again on a collision course with Washington partisanship.

    Here’s what you need to know about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, why it failed, and what chances it stands in the current political climate.

    The legislation, originally introduced in 2020 and again in 2021, would set up a national registry of police misconduct to stop officers from evading consequences for their actions by moving to another jurisdiction.

    It would ban racial and religious profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels, and it would overhaul qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that critics say shields law enforcement from accountability.

    According to a fact sheet on the legislation at the time, the measure would also allow “individuals to recover damages in civil court when law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights by eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement.”

    The fact sheet also states that the legislation would “save lives by banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants” and would mandate “deadly force be used only as a last resort.”

    The bill twice cleared the House under Democratic control – in 2020 and 2021 – largely along party lines. But it never went anywhere in the Senate, even after Democrats won control in 2021, in part, because of disagreements about qualified immunity, which protects police officers from being sued in civil court.

    Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina spent some six months trying to hash out a deal that could win 60 votes in the Senate, but talks were stymied by a number of complicated issues.

    “It was clear at this negotiating table, in this moment, we were not making progress,” Booker told reporters in the spring of 2021. “In fact, recent back-and-forth with paper showed me that we were actually moving away from it. The negotiations we were in stopped. But the work will continue.”

    With the legislation stuck, Biden signed a more limited executive order to overhaul policing on the second anniversary of Floyd’s death. It took several actions that can be applied to federal officers, including efforts to ban chokeholds, expand the use of body-worn cameras and restrict no-knock warrants, among other things.

    But the president cannot mandate that local law enforcement adopt the measures in his order; the executive action lays out levers the federal government can use, such as federal grants and technical assistance, to incentivize local law enforcement to get on board

    And since then, little has happened on the federal legislative front.

    Here’s the reality: the road for police reform has only become more challenging in the new Congress now that House Republicans, who have placed their priorities elsewhere, are in the majority.

    Senate Democrats picked up one more seat in last year’s midterm elections to pad their majority, but they’re still far short of the 60 votes that would be need for such an effort to succeed. That means any policing overhaul that can find meaningful support in Congress will likely be stripped of the kind of measures that protesters are calling for.

    State officials have been initiating investigations into local police departments, recognizing that the federal government can’t take on every case nationwide.

    And, in some cases, local governments have taken their own steps. In the year after Floyd was killed, at least 25 states had considered some form of qualified immunity reform. In 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed into law a series of police reforms that created a system to decertify law enforcement officers found to have engaged in serious misconduct – joining the majority of states that have similar decertification authorities.

    But, for many, it’s not nearly enough. Read this CNN Opinion piece from Sonia Pruitt, a retired Montgomery County, Maryland, police captain:

    “Many have noted the police assault on Nichols is reminiscent of that on Rodney King, a Black man whose beating at the hands of Los Angeles police officers in 1991 was captured on video. But the beating of Nichols is actually much worse because it shows that after nearly 32 years, the needle of police reform has barely moved, and seemingly minor traffic violations continue to lead to the deaths of Black and other minority men and women in police encounters.”

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  • Protesters across the US decry police brutality after Tyre Nichols’ death | CNN

    Protesters across the US decry police brutality after Tyre Nichols’ death | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic videos and descriptions of violence.



    CNN
     — 

    Protesters once again took to the streets over the weekend to decry police brutality after the release of video depicting the violent Memphis police beating that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.

    Demonstrators marched through New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, among other cities across the nation on Saturday, raising signs bearing his name and calling for an end to abuses of authority.

    In Memphis, at a makeshift memorial near the corner where Nichols was beaten, resident Kiara Hill expressed her disappointment and said the neighborhood was quiet and family oriented.

    “To see the events unfold how they’ve unfolded, with this Tyre Nichols situation, is heartbreaking. I have a son,” Hill told CNN. “And Tyre, out of the officers on the scene, he was the calmest.”

    Nichols could be heard yelling for his mother in the video of the January 7 encounter, which begins with a traffic stop and goes on to show officers repeatedly beating the young Black man with batons, punching him and kicking him – including at one point while his hands are restrained behind his back.

    He was left slumped to the ground in handcuffs, and 23 minutes passed before a stretcher arrived at the scene. Nichols was eventually hospitalized and died three days later.

    “All of these officers failed their oath,” Nichols’ family attorney Ben Crump told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday. “They failed their oath to protect and serve. Look at that video: Was anybody trying to protect and serve Tyre Nichols?”

    Since Nichols’ death, the backlash has been relatively swift. The five Memphis officers involved in the beating – who are also Black – were fired and charged with murder and kidnapping in Nichols’ death. The unit they were part of was disbanded, and state lawmakers representing the Memphis area began planning police reform bills.

    Crump said that the quick firing and arrests of the police officers and release of video should be a “blueprint” for how police brutality allegations are handled going forward. He applauded Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis for arresting and charging the officers within 20 days.

    “When you see police officers commit crimes against citizens, then we want you to act just as swiftly and show as the chief said, the community needs to see it, but we need to see it too when it’s White police officers,” Crump said.

    These are the moments that led to Tyre Nichols’ death

    The five former Memphis police officers involved in the arrest have been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping, among other charges, according to the Shelby County district attorney.

    The officers, identified as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., are expected to be arraigned February 17.

    The attorney for one of the officers indicted, Mills Jr., put out a statement Friday night saying that he didn’t cross lines “that others crossed” during the confrontation.

    All five officers were members of the now-scrapped SCORPION unit, Memphis police spokesperson Maj. Karen Rudolph told CNN on Saturday. The unit, launched in 2021, put officers into areas where police were tracking upticks in violent crime.

    Memphis police announced Saturday that it will disband the unit, saying that “it is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the SCORPION Unit.”

    But disbanding the unit without giving officers new training would be “putting lipstick on a pig,” city council chair Martavius Jones told CNN Saturday.

    City council member Patrice Robinson also told CNN disbanding the unit does not go far enough in addressing issues within the agency.

    “We have to fight the bad players in our community, and now we’ve got to fight our own police officers. That is deplorable,” Robinson said. “We’re going to have to do something.”

    Atlanta police officers watch as protesters march during a rally against the fatal Memphis police assault of Tyre Nichols, in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 28, 2023.

    The fallout from the deadly encounter also stretched to other agencies involved.

    Two Memphis Fire Department employees who were part of Nichols’ initial care were relieved of duty, pending the outcome of an internal investigation. And two deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office have been put on leave pending an investigation.

    A pair of Democratic state lawmakers said Saturday that they intend to file police reform legislation ahead of the Tennessee General Assembly’s Tuesday filing deadline.

    The bills will seek to address mental health care for law enforcement officers, hiring, training, discipline practices and other topics, said Rep. G.A. Hardaway, who represents a portion of Memphis and Shelby County.

    Rep. Joe Towns Jr., who also represents a portion of Memphis, said legislation could pass through the state house as early as April or May.

    While Democrats hold the minority with 24 representatives compared to the Republican majority of 99 representatives, Towns said this legislation is not partisan and should pass on both sides of the legislature.

    “You would be hard-pressed to look at this footage (of Tyre Nichols) and see what happened to that young man, OK, and not want to do something. If a dog in this county was beaten like that, what the hell would happen?” Towns said.

    John Miller bodycams orig thumb

    ‘There is no OK here’: Ex-NYPD official reacts to Memphis footage

    By the time she saw her son, badly bruised and swollen in his hospital bed, Nichols’ mother says she knew he wasn’t going to make it.

    “When I saw that, I knew my son was gone, the end,” RowVaughn Wells told CNN.

    Through tears, the mother said the officers charged with her son’s death “brought shame to their own families. They brought shame to the Black community.”

    “I don’t have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again,” she said. But she takes comfort in knowing her son was a good person, she said.

    The 29-year-old was a father and also the baby of his family, the youngest of four children. He was a “good boy” who spent his Sundays doing laundry and getting ready for the week, his mother said.

    Nichols loved being a father to his 4-year-old son, said his family.

    “Everything he was trying to do was to better himself as a father for his 4-year-old son,” Crump said at the family’s news conference.

    “He always said he was going to be famous one day. I didn’t know this is what he meant,” Wells said Friday.

    A verified GoFundMe campaign started in memory of Tyre Nichols had raised more than $936,000 as of early Sunday morning. The online fundraiser was created by Nichols’ mother and reads in part: “My baby was just trying to make it home to be safe in my arms. Tyre was unarmed, nonthreatening, and respectful to police during the entire encounter!”

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  • The names and places that define America’s week of ‘tragedy upon tragedy’ | CNN Politics

    The names and places that define America’s week of ‘tragedy upon tragedy’ | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Tyre Nichols. Monterey Park. Half Moon Bay.

    Three new entries in America’s roster of tragedy burst from obscurity to their haunting moment in the media spotlight and exemplified societal undercurrents of violence, injustice and grief.

    A week that began with the nation reeling from more mass shootings ended with the release of a video capturing the beating of yet another Black man pulled over for a police traffic stop who ended up dead.

    Nichols, a 29-year-old from Memphis, became the latest victim suddenly introduced to millions of Americans after his death. A grand jury Thursday returned murder indictments against five since-fired police officers involved in his arrest. With tensions rising in Tennessee and further afield, the city of Memphis released body camera and surveillance video of the arrest on Friday evening. The footage drew stunned reaction from law enforcement experts and outrage from officials, including President Joe Biden.

    In California, meanwhile, grieving families are processing the horror that suddenly pitches a town or city into the public eye and epitomizes an epidemic of lone gunmen unleashing massacres in everyday places where people trusted they were safe.

    At a dance studio on Saturday night in Monterey Park, 11 people between the ages of 57 and 76 were killed celebrating Lunar New Year. Unbelievably, on Monday, it happened again. Seven innocent people died in a mass shooting that unfolded at a mushroom farm and near a trucking facility. The community’s sense of peace was “destroyed by senseless death,” California Assemblymember Marc Berman said.

    Aside from the brutal, sudden arrival of needless death, this week’s shootings and the aftermath of the loss of another young man are not linked. But there is a sense that the rituals of anger and mourning after such horrors are familiar. A fresh batch of relatives is thrust into the gauntlet of interviews and news conferences as well as the political melees often stirred by tragic incidents. They are like new characters reciting the same lines of anger and disbelief in an endless cycle of loss.

    The trauma afflicting California and Memphis this week also touches on areas in which a polarized political system has failed, repeatedly, to make progress to stop such tragedies from happening. The rituals after mass shootings – of politicians expressing condolences, liberals demanding gun reform and conservatives deflecting blame from lax firearms laws – lead almost always to not much being done.

    A similarly politicized debate over police reform delivers futility after almost every incident of apparent brutality. After a spate of deaths of young Black men at police hands, a bipartisan attempt to address officer conduct foundered in 2021 and has little chance of a revival in now-divided Washington. Caricatured arguments over whether Democrats want to “defund” the police – many do not – and the amped-up politics around guns effectively paralyze any hope of change.

    The tragedy of Tyre Nichols is deepened by its familiarity. He was taken to the hospital after his arrest on January 7 and died three days later from injuries sustained when he was taken into custody. After his family and attorneys met with police and viewed videos of his arrest, momentum steadily built for accountability as the story generated local and then national headlines. It all led up to Thursday’s indictments.

    The face of Nichols is now smiling out from a photo on every television station or news website. His name has joined those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright and countless others who in death rose to prominence and became examples of America’s struggles against police brutality. Others like Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin, more broadly, have become casualties of societal and individual racism.

    It’s important that these names are remembered – given both the individuals they were and the unresolved national pain they represent. Prominent civil rights and wrongful death attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci made this point in a statement issued on behalf of the Nichols family on Thursday.

    “This young man lost his life in a particularly disgusting manner that points to the desperate need for change and reform to ensure this violence stops occurring during low-threat procedures, like in this case, a traffic stop,” they wrote.

    “This tragedy meets the absolute definition of a needless and unnecessary death. Tyre’s loved ones’ lives were forever changed when he was beaten to death, and we will keep saying his name until justice is served.”

    Yet it’s haunting that millions of Americans who never met Nichols only now know him in death. It’s a dehumanizing trend that victims become metaphors for a social blight or political failures and their lifetimes are fitted into established narratives when they can no longer write their own stories. That’s why an anecdote about Nichols – like how he loved to rush out in the evenings to take snapshots of sunsets – is so important to restoring a piece of his humanity.

    The release of the video on Friday, which had officials from Biden on downwards warning against a violent reaction, offered new insight into Nichols’ death. As will the prosecution of the five former officers. A trial will also likely feature context about a challenging public order and crime situation in Memphis, intensive police tactics and how conditions set off a chain of events where a routine traffic stop could end so awfully.

    Unlike many recent incidents where young Black men have been disproportionately impacted in encounters with White police officers, the case in Memphis involved five Black officers.

    But CNN political analyst Bakari Sellers said that the incident nevertheless underscored a criminal justice system that was failing.

    “For many of us, we haven’t been critical necessarily of the race of the officer whether or not they are White, Black, Hispanic or otherwise, but it’s the system. And what you are seeing over and over, again and again, is a system that perpetuates violence against people of color,” Sellers said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.”

    Each of the five police officers has been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression. While each played a different role in the incident, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said, “The actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols, and they are all responsible.”

    But lawyers for two of the men cautioned that the full facts of the case are yet to emerge. “No one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die,” said William Massey, who is representing Emmitt Martin, one of the former officers. “Justice means following the law and the law says that no one is guilty until a jury says they’re guilty.”

    Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay in California now join the roll call of cities whose notoriety is burned into America’s consciousness by mass shootings, including Columbine, Newtown, Uvalde, Parkland, San Bernardino and others too numerous to count.

    Everyone who died represents a crushing individual tragedy, a family severed and future memories obliterated by an assailant armed with a gun.

    Valentino Marcos Alvero, 68, hoped to retire in a year and return home to the Philippines, but in the meantime loved to “dance around the house,” his son Val Anthony Alvero said. Mymy Nhan, 65, also loved to dance and for years went to the studio in Monterey Park where she died, a family statement said.

    While the mass shootings left a pall of fear and loss over the Golden State, there was one ray of light epitomized by 26-year-old Brandon Tsay, who wrestled with the Monterey Bay shooter in another dance studio in Alhambra, eventually disarming him and potentially averting even greater carnage. Biden called Tsay on Thursday to thank him for “taking such incredible action in the face of danger.”

    “I don’t think you understand just how much you’ve done for so many people who are never going to even know you,” the president told a modest Tsay, according to a transcript.

    “You are America, pal. You are who we are. … America’s never backed down, we’ve always stepped up, because of people like you.”

    Overall, though, it was a harrowing week in which the grief never seemed to stop, best summed up in a tweet by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

    “Tragedy upon tragedy.”

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Memphis police permanently disband unit tied to deadly beating of Tyre Nichols | CNN

    Memphis police permanently disband unit tied to deadly beating of Tyre Nichols | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic videos and descriptions of violence.



    CNN
     — 

    A day after the public release of video showing the horrific police beating of Tyre Nichols, the Memphis police department announced it is permanently deactivating the unit that five of the involved officers belonged to.

    The SCORPION unit, launched in 2021, was tasked with tackling rising crime in the city, but has been heavily criticized in the aftermath of the 29-year-old man’s killing. Nichols was brutally beaten on January 7 after a traffic stop. He required hospitalization and died on January 10.

    The five Memphis officers who were fired and charged in Nichols’ death all were members of the unit, Memphis police spokesperson Maj. Karen Rudolph told CNN on Saturday.

    A Nichols family attorney this week called for the unit to be disbanded.

    In a statement posted on Twitter Saturday, Memphis police said it was “in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate” the unit.

    “The officers currently assigned to the unit agree unreservedly with this next step,” police said. “While the heinous actions of a few casts a cloud of dishonor on the title SCORPION, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department take proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted.”

    The police statement comes less than 24 hours after the release of the graphic videos of police striking the Black man. Protests began forming Friday night, with people in several cities taking to the streets and raising signs bearing Nichols’ name.

    Saturday’s marches and rallies are expected in Memphis, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Athens, Georgia, and Columbus, Ohio, among other cities.

    Protesters near Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta on Saturday repeated Nichols’ name and demanded justice. They then proceeded to march through downtown.

    In Memphis, protesters late Friday shut down an Interstate 55 bridge near the downtown area, chanting, “No justice, no peace,” according to a CNN team on the scene. There were no arrests stemming from the demonstration, police said.

    Ahead of the release of the videos, Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, called for peaceful protests.

    Memphis City Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas told CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Saturday that before the video release, there was a fear of violent protests because of a lack of police accountability in previous incidents.

    “I think last night, we saw a very peaceful and direct sense of protest in the city of Memphis, and I think it’s because maybe we do have faith and hope that the system is going to get it right this time,” Easter-Thomas said.

    In New York, skirmishes broke out between several protesters and police officers as demonstrators crowded Times Square, video posted to social media shows.

    Three demonstrators were arrested, one of whom was seen jumping on the hood of a police vehicle and breaking the windshield, the New York Police Department said.

    Protesters also gathered in Washington, DC, at Lafayette Square to demand justice for Nichols, according to social media video.

    Along the West Coast, protesters marched in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, carrying signs reading, “Justice for Tyre Nichols” and “jail killer cops.”

    Video of the January 7 encounter shows “acts that defy humanity,” Memphis police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis warned before the footage’s release to the public.

    Police officers and protesters clash in New York on January 27.

    The arrest begins with a traffic stop for what officers said was reckless driving and goes on to show officers beating Nichols with batons, kicking him and punching him – including while his hands are restrained behind his body – as the young man cries out for his mother, video shows.

    The encounter ends with Nichols slumped to the ground in handcuffs, leaning against a police cruiser unattended as officers mill about. Nichols was later hospitalized and died three days later.

    Video shows 23 minutes passed from the time Nichols appears to be subdued and on his back on the ground before a stretcher arrives at the scene.

    Footage of the violent encounter was released because Nichols’ family “want the world to be their witness and feel their pain,” Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy said.

    “While nothing we do can bring Tyre back, we promise you that we are doing all we can to ensure that Tyre’s family, and our city of Memphis, see justice for Tyre Nichols,” Mulroy added.

    The Memphis Police Department has been unable to find anything to substantiate the probable cause for reckless driving and said video of the encounter shows a “disregard for life, duty of care that we’re all sworn to,” Davis said.

    Five former Memphis police officers involved in the arrest – who are also Black – have been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping, according to the Shelby County district attorney. They were identified as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr.

    Two Memphis Fire Department employees who were part of Nichols’ initial care were relieved of duty, pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

    Also, two deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office have been put on leave pending an investigation after the sheriff viewed the video.

    Nichols’ family attorney Ben Crump said the family did not know there were two members of the sheriff’s office at the scene of the beating, telling CNN on Saturday, “this was the first they heard of it.”

    The Memphis Police Association, which represents city police officers, expressed condolences to the Nichols family and said it does not condone the mistreatment of citizens or abuse of power.

    The association said it has “faith in the criminal justice system.”

    “That faith is what we will lean on in the coming days, weeks, and months to ensure the totality of circumstances is revealed,” according to a statement. “Mr. Nichols’ family, the City of Memphis, and the rest of the country deserve nothing less.”

    According to Easter-Thomas, the City Council meeting next week will be “robust.”

    Easter-Thomas said she wants to ensure the police department knows the council supports them but expects officers to do their jobs with the “utmost fidelity.”

    Martavius Jones

    ‘We all knew the fate’: Memphis lawmaker emotionally describes Nichols video

    The Memphis police chief likened the video to the 1991 Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King that sparked days of unrest in the city.

    “It’s very much aligned with that same type of behavior,” Davis said.

    Crump also made the comparison. “Being assaulted, battered, punched, kicked, tased, pepper sprayed. It is very troubling,” he said.

    “The only difference between my father’s situation and now is hashtags and a clearer camera,” Rodney King’s daughter Lora King told CNN. “We have to do better, this is unacceptable.”

    “I don’t think anybody in their right mind, anybody that respects humanity is OK with this,” she said, adding that she’s saddened for Nichols’ family and loved ones. “I’m just sad for just where we are in America, we’re still here.”

    A protest over Nichols’ death is set for Saturday in Los Angeles.

    President Joe Biden said he was “outraged and deeply pained” after seeing the video. “It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”

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  • Five former Memphis police officers indicted on charges of murder and kidnapping in Tyre Nichols’ death | CNN

    Five former Memphis police officers indicted on charges of murder and kidnapping in Tyre Nichols’ death | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Five former Memphis police officers who were fired for their actions during the arrest of Tyre Nichols earlier this month were indicted on charges including murder and kidnapping, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy announced Thursday.

    The former officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., have each been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression, Mulroy said.

    “While each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols, and they are all responsible,” he said.

    Live updates on the Tyre Nichols case

    Second-degree murder is defined in Tennessee as a “knowing killing of another” and is considered a Class A felony punishable by between 15 to 60 years in prison.

    The criminal charges come about three weeks after Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was hospitalized after a traffic stop and “confrontation” with Memphis police that family attorneys have called a savage beating. Nichols died from his injuries on January 10, three days after the arrest, authorities said.

    Four of the officers remained in custody Thursday evening, after being booked into the Shelby County Jail. Bond was set at $350,000 for Haley, 30, and Martin, 30, and $250,000 for Bean, 24, and Smith, 28, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Mills, 32, posted $250,000 bond Thursday evening and was released, according to jail records.

    In a joint news conference Thursday afternoon, Blake Ballin, an attorney for Mills, and William Massey, Martin’s attorney, said they have not yet watched the video of the police encounter, which is expected to be released to the public Friday.

    Ballin described Mills as a “respectful father,” who was “devastated” to be accused in the killing. Mills, previously a jailer in Mississippi and Tennessee, was in the process of posting bond Thursday to secure his release and plans to enter a not guilty plea in court, his attorney said. Ballin said he had not spoken to Mills specifically about Nichols.

    Martin also intended to post bond and will also plead not guilty, his attorney said. “No one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die,” Massey said.

    Other officers’ attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Police nationwide have been under heightened scrutiny for how they treat Black people, particularly since the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the mass protest movement known as Black Lives Matter. Officials in Memphis have braced for potential civil unrest due to Nichols’ death and have called for peaceful protests.

    President Joe Biden said in a Thursday statement the killing is a “painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all.”

    Video of the fatal police encounter, a mix of body-camera and pole-cam video, is expected to be released publicly after 6 p.m. Friday, Mulroy said.

    Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday night, Mulroy said that while he can’t definitively say what caused the encounter to escalate, the video shows that the officers were “already highly charged up” from the start of the video and “it just escalated further from there.”

    The video doesn’t capture the beginning of the altercation between the officers and Nichols but rather “cuts in as the first encounter is in progress,” Mulroy said.

    “What struck me (about the video) is how many different incidents of unwarranted force occurred sporadically by different individuals over a long period of time,” the district attorney added.

    Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said the fatal encounter was not proper policing.

    “I’m sickened by what I saw and what we’ve learned from our extensive and thorough investigation,” he said. “I’ve seen the video, and as DA Mulroy stated, you will too. In a word, it’s absolutely appalling.”

    Nichols’ family and attorneys were shown the video on Monday and said it shows officers severely beating Nichols and compared it to the Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King in 1991.

    “The news today from Memphis officials that these five officers are being held criminally accountable for their deadly and brutal actions gives us hope as we continue to push for justice for Tyre,” attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said Thursday.

    Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis took on the position in June 2021.

    The five Memphis police officers, who are also Black, were fired last week for violating policies on excessive use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid, the department said.

    In a YouTube video released late Wednesday, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis condemned the officers’ actions and called for peaceful protests when the arrest video is released.

    “This is not just a professional failing. This is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual,” Davis said in the video, her first on-camera comments about the arrest. “This incident was heinous, reckless and inhumane.”

    “I expect our citizens to exercise their First Amendment right to protest to demand action and results. But we need to ensure our community is safe in this process,” said Davis, the first Black woman to serve as Memphis police chief. “None of this is a calling card for inciting violence or destruction on our community or against our citizens.”

    The five terminated officers all joined the department in the last six years, according to police. Other Memphis police officers are still under investigation for department policy violations related to the incident, the chief said.

    In a statement posted Thursday, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said the city had initiated an “outside, independent review” of the training, policies and operations of the police department’s specialized units. At least two of the officers belonged to one of those special units, according to their attorneys.

    Two members of the city’s fire department who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” also were relieved of duty, a fire spokesperson said. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced an investigation into Nichols’ death and the US Department of Justice and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation.

    Mulroy said the investigation is ongoing and there could be further charges going forward.

    Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies nationwide are bracing for protests and potential unrest following the release of video, multiple sources told CNN.

    The Memphis Police Department has terminated five police officers in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols. Top: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmit Martin. Bottom: Desmond Mills Jr., Justin Smith

    Nichols, the father of a 4-year-old, had worked with his stepfather at FedEx for about nine months, his family said. He was fond of skateboarding in Shelby Farms Park, Starbucks with friends and photographing sunsets, and he had his mother’s name tattooed on his arm, the family said. He also had the digestive issue known as Crohn’s disease and so was a slim 140 to 145 pounds despite his 6-foot-3-inch height, his mother said.

    On January 7, he was pulled over by Memphis officers on suspicion of reckless driving, police said in their initial statement on the incident. As officers approached the vehicle, a “confrontation” occurred and Nichols fled on foot, police said. The officers pursued him and they had another “confrontation” before he was taken into custody, police said.

    Nichols then complained of shortness of breath, was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and died three days later, police said.

    In Memphis police scanner audio, a person says there was “one male Black running” and called to “set up a perimeter.” Another message says “he’s fighting at this time.”

    On Thursday, Mulroy offered a few further details, saying the serious injuries occurred at the second confrontation. He also said Nichols was taken away in an ambulance after “some period of time of waiting around.”

    Attorneys for Nichols’ family who watched video of the arrest on Monday described it as a heinous police beating that lasted three long minutes. Crump said Nichols was tased, pepper-sprayed and restrained, and Romanucci said he was kicked.

    “He was defenseless the entire time. He was a human piñata for those police officers. It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes. That is what we saw in that video,” Romanucci said. “Not only was it violent, it was savage.”

    Nichols had “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to the attorneys, citing preliminary results of an autopsy they commissioned.

    Among the charges, the officers were indicted on two counts of aggravated kidnapping: one for possession of a weapon and one for bodily injury.

    “At a certain point in the sequence of events, it is our view that this, if it was a legal detention to begin with, it certainly became illegal at a certain point, and it was an unlawful detention,” Mulroy said.

    Less than a month after the murder of Floyd, the Memphis Police Department amended its duty to intervene policy, according to a copy of the policy sent to CNN by the MPD.

    “Any member who directly observes another member engaged in dangerous or criminal conduct or abuse of a subject shall take reasonable action to intervene,” the policy, sent out on June 9, 2020, said.

    “A member shall immediately report to the Department any violation of policies and regulations or any other improper conduct which is contrary to the policy, order, or directives of the Department.”

    The policy went on to say “this reporting requirement also applies to allegations of uses of force not yet reported.”

    Correction: A previous version of this story gave the wrong spelling for the name of one of the arrested officers. According to the indictment, it is Tadarrius Bean.

    Previous versions of this story spelled Emmitt Martin’s name incorrectly.

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  • Protests reach Haiti airport and Prime Minister’s residence over police killings | CNN

    Protests reach Haiti airport and Prime Minister’s residence over police killings | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Protesters and some police officers protested at the official residence of Haiti’s prime minister in the capital Port-au-Prince on Thursday, decrying recent killings of police, according to one of his advisors.

    “The police officers and the protestors came here to make their voices heard. They are angry and we understand and hear them,” the advisor told CNN, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the current situation.

    Social media images appeared to show protesters outside the prime minister’s residence, and at the country’s main airport, Toussaint Louverture International.

    Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who was returning to Haiti from a summit in Argentina on Thursday, was not at his residence during the incident. He has not commented publicly on the demonstrations.

    Amid widespread insecurity and gang violence in the country, the killings of several police officers in the line of duty this week has inflamed anger in the capital.

    Six police officers were killed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to at least 10, according to public statements by the Haitian National Police. The police did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

    In an announcement tweeted Thursday by the police, Director General Frantz Elbé declared a state of “maximum alert” in light of the killings.

    The international community has condemned the targeting of police in Haiti.

    In a tweet, the US Embassy in Haiti wrote that it “offers its condolences to the families and friends of the brave … officers killed in the line of duty and appeals for calm to protect the population and allow a peaceful mourning period.”

    “We stand together with the security forces as they fight against the armed gangs to restore the security of the Haitian people,” the Embassy also wrote.

    The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti also tweeted its “energetic condemnation of the targeted and deliberate attacks by armed gangs against police personnel.”

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  • House Democratic whip’s daughter arrested at protest and charged with assaulting police officer | CNN Politics

    House Democratic whip’s daughter arrested at protest and charged with assaulting police officer | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark’s daughter was arrested during a protest in Boston and has been arraigned on charges including assault on a police officer.

    Riley Dowell, 23, was found by police tagging the Parkman Bandstand monument “NO COP CITY” and “ACAB,” according to a press release from the Boston Police Department. “ACAB” is commonly known as an acronym for the anti-police slogan “All Cops Are Bastards.”

    While police tried to arrest Dowell, protesters surrounded officers and one was hit in the face and bleeding, according to the press release. The release referred to Dowell by her birth name.

    Dowell has now been arraigned and charged with assault of a police officer, according to a news release from Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office.

    “Riley Dowell, 23, was arraigned in the Central Division of Boston Municipal Court today on charges of assault and battery on a police officer, vandalizing property, tagging property, vandalizing a historic marker/monument, and resisting arrest,” the release obtained by CNN affiliate WCVB said. “Judge James Coffey set bail at $500 and ordered Dowell to stay away from Boston Common.”

    Dowell is represented by attorney Chris Dearborn, according to the release. Dearborn had no comment when reached by CNN. Dowell’s next court appearance is scheduled for April 19, the release said.

    Dowell posted bail and is no longer in police custody, the Boston Municipal Court told CNN in an email Tuesday.

    Clark commented on the news in a tweet Sunday.

    “Last night, my daughter was arrested in Boston, Massachusetts. I love Riley, and this is a very difficult time in the cycle of joy and pain in parenting,” Clark wrote. “This will be evaluated by the legal system, and I am confident in that process.”

    Clark began serving as minority whip in the 118th session of Congress after House Democrats elevated her to the position.

    Clark is only the second woman after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve in one of the top two party leadership positions in Congress.

    Previously, the congresswoman served in the leadership role of assistant speaker.

    This story is breaking and has been updated.

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  • 6 arrested after Atlanta protests over controversial ‘Cop City’ and fatal police shooting of activist | CNN

    6 arrested after Atlanta protests over controversial ‘Cop City’ and fatal police shooting of activist | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Six people were arrested Saturday evening in downtown Atlanta, authorities said, during protests that came in response to a proposed police training facility and the fatal police shooting of an activist earlier in the week.

    The protesters marched in a “peaceful manner” Saturday evening down a central Atlanta street but a group within the crowd later began “committing illegal acts,” including breaking windows and attacking police cruisers, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said in a news conference.

    Police arrested six people and were continuing to investigate whether there were any others involved in illegal activity, the chief said. Three businesses sustained damage to their windows, he added.

    Social media footage showed a police cruiser on fire in the downtown area, and video from CNN affiliate WANF showed broken windows at a Wells Fargo bank.

    The protests come in response to a planned $90 million, 85-acre law enforcement training facility – dubbed “Cop City” by its opponents – and just days after the police killing of a 26-year-old activist near the site of the training center.

    CNN has reached out to a local movement opposing the project for comment.

    Some of the people arrested Saturday have “already been involved in other criminal activity and are involved in a manner to deter the building of the public safety training center,” Schierbaum said.

    “My message is simple to those who seek to continue this type of criminal behavior,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said during the news conference. “We will find you and we will arrest you and you will be held accountable.” Dickens was among the city council members who voted in favor of the training center in 2021.

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also said on Twitter “violence and unlawful destruction of property are not acts of protest. They are crimes that will not be tolerated in Georgia and will be prosecuted fully.”

    During the news conference, Dickens said many of those arrested “don’t even live in Atlanta or in the state of Georgia” and some were found “with explosives.”

    The activist’s fatal police shooting unfolded Wednesday morning, during what authorities said was a clearing operation to remove people from the site of the future facility. Opponents of the center have camped out in the area for months in an attempt to halt construction.

    The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said law enforcement officers spotted an individual in a tent in the woods and gave verbal commands, but the individual allegedly did not comply and shot a Georgia State Patrol Trooper, according to a news release.

    Officers returned fire and fatally wounded the individual, who died at the scene. A handgun recovered from the individual’s possession matched the projectile from the trooper’s wound, the GBI said.

    The person killed was identified as Manuel Esteban Paez Teran.

    Activists associated with movements protesting the facility, who dispute law enforcement’s account, said Teran was a “forest defender” working to fight environmental racism. Local justice groups said Teran, known as Tortuguita, was a “sweet, warm, very smart and caring” person.

    The injured trooper was taken to a local hospital for surgery and was in stable condition Wednesday night, authorities said. The Georgia Department of Public Safety said it will not release the trooper’s name because “disclosure would compromise security against criminal or terroristic acts due to retaliation.”

    Additionally, the GBI said that during its clearing operation, it found and removed about 25 campsites and arrested and charged seven people with domestic terrorism and criminal trespass. Authorities recovered “mortar style fireworks, multiple edged weapons, pellet rifles, gas masks and a blow torch,” it added.

    The Atlanta Police Foundation has said the planned training center is needed to help boost morale and recruitment efforts, and previous facilities used by law enforcement are substandard.

    But the facility, which will include a shooting range, mock city and burn building, has been met with fierce resistance.

    While some critics of the project see it as a response to the 2020 police brutality and racial injustice protests, city leaders have said the center will also help address police reform, but have not provided further details.

    Some residents have also accused the city of blindsiding neighbors with what they said has been a largely secretive development process with little community input. Taxpayers will foot about $30 million of the facility’s cost, with the rest coming from private philanthropic and corporate donations, city officials have said.

    And activists have also long expressed concern over the project’s environmental impact: The training center would carve out a chunk of forested land and fragment what local advocates hope will become a network of connected green spaces across parts of Atlanta and DeKalb County.

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  • El Paso shelter says video of officer slamming person on ground shows ‘excessive force’ | CNN

    El Paso shelter says video of officer slamming person on ground shows ‘excessive force’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A homeless shelter in El Paso, Texas, released a video showing what the group said was Customs and Border Protection officials apprehending a person outside of its welcome center.

    The Opportunity Center for the Homeless posted the surveillance video, which shows someone who appears to be in law enforcement pushing the person up to the teal windows at the entrance of the building and then slamming the person to the ground and handcuffing them.

    Another person who appears to be in law enforcement stands over them.

    The group says the surveillance video was taken at 11:50 a.m. on January 6.

    It is unclear what led up to the incident. CNN reached out to the Opportunity Center for the Homeless Sunday night to inquire about the person’s whereabouts or condition following the January 6 incident and whether there was any additional video taken before or after the footage that was shared on social media.

    Opportunity Center for the Homeless founder Ray Tullius issued a statement saying, “Through the years, the Opportunity Center for the Homeless has had a respectful and long-standing working relationship with law enforcement officials in the community.

    “[On Friday], an individual receiving services at the Welcome Center, located at 201 E. 9th Avenue, was apprehended in front of the facility by Customs and Border Protection officials with what seems to us to be excessive force.

    “To our knowledge, this is an isolated incident. However, it raises our concerns for the well-being of the individual taken into custody and all the guests receiving services in our homeless programs. As we have done it for the last twenty-nine years, the Opportunity Center for the Homeless will continue to extend a helping hand to those in need of help,” the statement reads.

    In a statement, US Customs and Border Protection said its Office of Professional Responsibility is reviewing the incident.

    “Although, at the moment we do not have all the details of what occurred during this incident, CBP takes all allegations of misconduct seriously, investigates thoroughly, and holds employees accountable when policies are violated,” the agency said.

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