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Tag: policing and police forces

  • Police searching for missing UK mom Nicola Bulley find a body | CNN

    Police searching for missing UK mom Nicola Bulley find a body | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Police searching for missing UK mom Nicola Bulley said Sunday they had found a body.

    A body was recovered from a river near where Bulley went missing in the northern English village of St. Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire Police said. The body has yet to be formally identified, but Bulley’s family has been informed of the discovery.

    “We were called today at 11:36am to reports of a body in the River Wyre, close to Rawcliffe Road,” a police statement read.

    “An underwater search team and specialist officers have subsequently attended the scene, entered the water and have sadly recovered a body.

    “Nicola’s family have been informed of developments and our thoughts are with them at this most difficult of times. We ask that their privacy is respected.”

    Bulley, who worked as a mortgage adviser, went missing on the morning of Friday, January 27. Police say she was walking her dog after dropping her two children off at school.

    A short while later, her dog was found wandering alone and her phone spotted on a bench next to the river, still logged into a group work call. But for three weeks, the search launched by Lancashire Police for the 45-year-old mother of two drew a blank.

    The case baffled the public and attracted widespread media attention, with police also – unusually – choosing to reveal that Bulley had been struggling with alcohol issues and menopause at the time of her disappearance.

    Last week saw investigators sharply criticize members of the public they said were pedaling “persistent myths.”

    Lancashire Police Detective Superintendent Rebecca Smith told journalists on Wednesday that the social media frenzy had “significantly distracted” the investigation. “In 29 years’ police service, I’ve never seen anything like it.

    “Some of it’s been quite shocking and really hurtful to the family. Obviously, we can’t disregard anything, and we’ve reviewed everything that’s come in but of course it has distracted us significantly.”

    Lancashire Police’s decision to reveal personal details about Bulley sparked widespread criticism, with many accusing the force of sexism. Even the government slammed the police, with Home Secretary Suella Braverman raising concerns over its handling of the case.

    Stephanie Benyon, a friend of Bulley’s whose children attend the same school, previously told CNN that she is a “kind, loyal and thoughtful person who adores her two girls and family and friends.” Bulley’s partner of 12 years, Paul Ansell, had described the situation as a “perpetual hell.”

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  • At least two killed as militants storm Karachi police headquarters | CNN

    At least two killed as militants storm Karachi police headquarters | CNN

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    Islamabad, Pakistan
    CNN
     — 

    Two people were killed after militants stormed the police headquarters in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, according to ambulance officials.

    A police officer and a janitor died in the attack while four police rangers were also injured, Edhi Ambulance Service said.

    Up to 10 militants attacked the police station with hand grenades and shots were fired, an eyewitness told CNN. The Sindh provincial minister for labor, Saeed Ghani, confirmed the attack to CNN, adding the incident was ongoing.

    Multiple shots could be heard ringing through the area where the headquarters is located, according to footage from the scene, and eyewitnesses described hearing multiple explosions.

    The attack prompted the Sindh provincial government to declare a state of emergency in Karachi, according to its spokesperson, Sharjeel Memon.

    Pakistan’s Taliban, known as Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to spokesman Mohammad Khorasani.

    Pakistan’s Taliban have been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department since September 2010.

    Pakistani authorities have yet to confirm any group’s involvement.

    Rescue teams have reached the site of the attack, according to video released by Chhipa Ambulance Service, in which gunfire could be heard.

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  • LAPD arrests suspect in shootings of 2 Jewish people, which police are investigating as potential hate crimes | CNN

    LAPD arrests suspect in shootings of 2 Jewish people, which police are investigating as potential hate crimes | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Police in Los Angeles have arrested a man suspected of shooting two Jewish people this week and are investigating the attacks as possible hate crimes, authorities said Thursday.

    An “exhaustive” search for the suspect was launched after the victims were shot separately in the city’s western Pico-Robertson neighborhood on Wednesday and Thursday, about three blocks apart, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a release.

    Both victims were Jewish men, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Officials have not publicly identified the victims or suspect.

    “These attacks against members of our Jewish community in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood are absolutely unacceptable,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “At a time of increased anti-Semitism, these acts have understandably set communities on edge. Just last December, I stood blocks away from where these incidents occurred as we celebrated the first night of Hanukkah together.”

    The shootings come amid a rise in antisemitic violence nationwide. According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic attacks reached an all-time high in the US in 2021 – up 34% from 2020.

    The suspect was found in Riverside County, about an hour’s drive east of Los Angeles, police said. Detectives found several pieces of evidence, they said, including a rifle and handgun.

    Earlier, authorities said they were searching for a suspect described as an Asian male with a mustache and goatee, possibly driving a white compact car. A license plate recorded near the scene of one of the shootings assisted authorities in locating and arresting the suspect, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.

    “The facts of the case led to this crime being investigated as a hate crime,” Los Angeles police said. The FBI is also investigating the attacks as hate crimes, Bass said in her statement.

    At around 10 a.m. Wednesday, the first victim was walking to their vehicle when a man drove by and shot twice before fleeing the scene, a police spokesperson told CNN.

    The following day, at around 8:30 a.m., the second victim was walking toward his home nearby when a man drove up and shot at him from inside a car, and then fled, the spokesperson said.

    Both victims were taken to local hospitals and were in stable condition, the spokesperson said.

    They were walking home from places of worship when they were shot, said Laura Fennell, Director of Communications for the Anti-Defamation League West.

    The man shot Thursday is a member of the Beit El synagogue, which is about two blocks away from where police say he was shot, the synagogue confirmed to CNN. They did not identify the victim but said his injuries were minor.

    “The victim that was shot today is a pillar of our community here at Beit El. He has been a dear member for many years,” Beit El said in an email Thursday. They added, “The victim had just concluded morning prayer services, walked to his car donned in his kippah, and was shot three times at point-blank range.”

    “Our community is shaken to its core,” by the two shootings, Beit El said. “But we are strong and united.”

    The synagogue said it is working with police to implement security measures. Luna also said Los Angeles police are increasing law enforcement presence and patrols around Jewish places of worship.

    “The Los Angeles Police Department is aware of the concern these crimes have raised in the surrounding community. We have been in close contact with religious leaders as well as individual and organizational community stakeholders,” the department’s release said.

    The investigation, which includes state and federal authorities, is ongoing and more information will be released in the coming days, police said.

    The shootings in Los Angeles happened just a week after San Francisco authorities added a hate crime enhancement to charges against a man they said fired a replica gun inside a Bay-area synagogue earlier this month. No one was hurt.

    The hate crime allegation against the suspect is tied to statements he made during the incident as well as social media posts he made involving “several postings of an individual in Nazi-type clothing,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a news conference. An attorney for the suspect, Deputy Public Defender Olivia Taylor, said outside the courthouse that the man is “not guilty of any hate crime.”

    Days earlier in New Jersey, a man allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in Bloomfield in an arson attempt. The suspect has been charged with a federal crime.

    And in December, a 63-year-old man was assaulted in New York’s Central Park in what police called an antisemitic attack.

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  • Black man killed by Shreveport police had previously sued the same department for excessive use of force against him | CNN

    Black man killed by Shreveport police had previously sued the same department for excessive use of force against him | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An unarmed Black man who was shot and killed by a Shreveport, Louisiana, police officer had previously sued the police department, alleging excessive force, according to a lawsuit obtained by CNN.

    Alonzo Bagley, 43, was killed earlier this month after officers responded to a domestic disturbance call at an apartment complex, according to Louisiana State Police. When police arrived, Bagley jumped down from an apartment balcony and fled, and after a brief foot chase, one officer fatally shot Bagley – who was later found to be unarmed, state police said.

    The officer is on paid administrative leave, and the state police are investigating the incident, which includes reviewing the officer’s body worn camera.

    Documents show Bagley had a previous run-in with Shreveport police, years before he was killed.

    Twelve months after Shreveport police allegedly assaulted Bagley during an arrest in January of 2018, he filed a federal lawsuit against the department.

    Bagley required “treatment of a broken occipital orbital eye-socket bones, contusions to the head and face, and a number of his front upper teeth knocked out,” the suit says.

    During the 2018 incident, officers responded to a domestic dispute between Alonzo and his wife, the complaint states.

    Bagley was put into handcuffs that “were placed too tightly” on him and he “maneuvered his hands to the front of his body due to the pain and discomfort of being handcuffed behind his back in the back passenger portion of an SPD (Shreveport Police Department) patrol car,” the suit says. According to the filing, he “was not attempting and did not attempt to escape but only rearranged himself out of the painful position he was in.”

    One police officer then opened the door and “delivered forceful and several close-fisted strikes to the head and face” and a second officer did not stop the assault, the suit says. Bagley was handcuffed the entire time and offered no resistance, the lawsuit says.

    In response to the complaint, the city said that one of its officers did open the door of the patrol car, but was assisting Bagley because he was “attempting to strangle or choke himself with the seatbelt.”

    The city went on to say the officer did strike Bagley’s “head and facial area when Plaintiff (Bagley) covered his head with his arms and prevented Officer Kolb from removing the seatbelt and removing Plaintiff from the vehicle.”

    It is unclear what the resolution was on the lawsuit.

    An attorney that represented Bagley in the case did not return calls from CNN seeking comment.

    Bagley was charged with domestic abuse battery and resisting an officer related to the incident. The domestic abuse charge was dismissed, and he pleaded guilty in February 2018 to the charge of resisting an officer, according to court records.

    CNN has requested comment from the police department, and filed an open records request with the city to find out more about the 2018 incident.

    Alexander Tyler – the officer who shot and killed Bagley this month – was not with the department when the 2018 incident occurred.

    Bagley’s family has sued Tyler, seeking more than $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court. The lawsuit alleges that the office violated Alonzo Bagley’s Fourth Amendment rights.

    Louisiana State Police says the case is still under investigation.

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  • Family of unarmed Black man sues the Louisiana officer who killed him while waiting for release of body-camera video | CNN

    Family of unarmed Black man sues the Louisiana officer who killed him while waiting for release of body-camera video | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The family of an unarmed Black man who was shot and killed by a Shreveport, Louisiana, police officer has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the officer.

    The lawsuit filed Saturday in the Western District of Louisiana alleges the officer violated Alonzo Bagley’s Fourth Amendment rights.

    Bagley, 43, was shot and killed earlier this month after police responded to a domestic disturbance call at an apartment complex, Louisiana State Police said in a statement. When two officers arrived around 10:50 p.m. on February 3, Bagley jumped down from an apartment balcony and fled, said the statement from state police, which is the agency investigating the shooting.

    After a short foot pursuit, an officer “located Mr. Bagley as he rounded a building corner and fired one shot from his service weapon, which struck Mr. Bagley in the chest,” state police said. Bagley later was pronounced dead at a hospital.

    Detectives did not find any weapons on or near Bagley when they processed the scene, Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis said.

    The “use of lethal force against an unarmed man who posed no threat is objectively unreasonable, excessive and wholly without justification,” the lawsuit alleges.

    The family is seeking more than $10 million in damages, according to the lawsuit.

    The officer who shot Bagley was identified by state police as Alexander Tyler.

    Tyler is currently on paid administrative leave pending results of the state police investigation, the Shreveport Police Department told CNN. The officer has been with the department since May 2021, Chief Wayne Smith said.

    The investigation into Bagley’s shooting death comes as police use of force against people of color, particularly Black Americans, is under intense scrutiny nationwide, including the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols by Memphis officers conducting what police said was a traffic stop.

    In Louisiana, four state troopers and another law enforcement officer were indicted on charges last year stemming from the in-custody killing of 49-year-old Ronald Greene, a Black man violently beaten by officers during an arrest.

    “I am asking for the community to remain patient as we continue to conduct a very thorough investigation,” Davis said following Bagley’s death. “Transparency in the investigation is a priority for our agency.”

    Investigators are reviewing body-worn and dashboard camera videos and hope to release them to the public, Davis has said.

    “The family hopes to view the video before (Bagley’s) funeral,” Ronald Haley, the family’s attorney, told CNN, noting the funeral is scheduled for Saturday.

    State police declined Tuesday to say when the video would be released.

    “Further information will be released in coordination with the District Attorney’s Office. We do not have a timeline at this time,” Nick Manale, a spokesperson for state police, told CNN via email.

    The Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office told CNN it has not received any investigative materials from investigators.

    “Louisiana State police has the case under investigation,” Laura Fulco, the first assistant district attorney for Caddo Parish, said. “It is still under investigation.”

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  • Memphis firefighters union defends EMTs in Tyre Nichols case, says they weren’t given ‘adequate information’ | CNN

    Memphis firefighters union defends EMTs in Tyre Nichols case, says they weren’t given ‘adequate information’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The president of the firefighters union in Memphis, Tennessee is defending the actions of EMTs involved in the Tyre Nichols case.

    In a letter to the Memphis City Council, Thomas Malone, president of the Memphis Fire Fighters Association, said his members “were not given adequate information upon dispatch or upon arrival on the scene” where Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, had been repeatedly punched and kicked by police after a traffic stop on January 7.

    “Quite frankly, there was information withheld by those already on the scene which caused our members to handle things differently than they should have,” Malone suggested.

    Three Memphis Fire Department personnel were fired for failing to render emergency care during the January 7 incident.

    CNN obtained the letter from Memphis City Council member Dr. Jeff Warren. CNN has reached out to both Malone and Ben Crump, an attorney for the Nichols family, and has yet to hear back.

    Malone also said he was “disheartened” to see some members of the 1,600-employee department criticizing fellow members during a city council meeting last week.

    “Our members respond to hundreds of calls over and over, without fail. One incident should not define the good work being done by these dedicated public servants and some have taken that position, unfortunately,” he said.

    Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat told the council that training issues and the failure of EMTs to take personal accountability on a call were to blame for her department’s handling of the Nichols case.

    Emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge and fire Lt. Michelle Whitaker were fired, the fire department announced last month.

    An investigation concluded that the two EMTs “failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols” after responding based on both the initial call – in which they heard a person was pepper-sprayed – and information they were told at the scene, Sweat said in a news release.

    Whitaker had remained in the fire truck, according to the chief’s statement.

    The truck carrying the EMTs arrived at about 8:41 p.m. when Nichols was on the ground leaning against a police vehicle, the fire department said. An ambulance was called at 8:46 p.m. the department said. The ambulance arrived at 8:55 p.m. and left with Nichols 13 minutes later, according to the fire department.

    Pole-camera video shows that between the time the EMTs arrived and the ambulance arrived, first responders repeatedly walked away from Nichols, with Nichols intermittently falling onto his side.

    Since the incident, six officers have been fired, including five who are facing murder charges in Nichols’ death. On Monday, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told CNN another of the fired officers involved in the incident would have his case’s reviewed.

    The former officer, Preston Hemphill, was also fired for violating multiple police department policies, including personal conduct and truthfulness. He has not been charged in the case.

    Last week, the district attorney’s office announced it would investigate all prior and pending cases involving the five officers who were criminally charged.

    The officers were also added to a Giglio list, also known as a Brady list which documents law enforcement members who have been charged criminally or involved in incidents of untruthfulness or other issues that may undermine their credibility, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

    “The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office will add former Memphis Police Department Officer Preston Hemphill to the Giglio list. Additionally, the Office will investigate all prior and pending cases of Hemphill,” spokesperson Erica Williams said.

    Hemphill’s attorney, Lee Gerald, declined to comment about the investigation or his client’s addition to the Giglio list.

    Hemphill was seen on body camera video using his Taser on Nichols and later could be heard saying, “I hope they stomp his ass.”

    After Nichols’ beating, Hemphill provided conflicting statements about the case, first saying on a form that Nichols tried to grab a fellow officer’s weapon, but later telling investigators he did not see that occur, according to a police department document obtained by CNN.

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  • 6 North Carolina officers are on administrative leave after man dies in police custody | CNN

    6 North Carolina officers are on administrative leave after man dies in police custody | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Six Raleigh, North Carolina, police officers are on administrative leave and an investigation is underway after a man died in their custody last month, according to statements and newly released videos from the Raleigh Police Department.

    Darryl Tyree Williams, 32, died in a Raleigh hospital in the early hours of January 17 after a scuffle with police during which he was tased multiple times by police officers and arrested.

    The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is conducting an independent criminal investigation and will present its findings to the Wake County District Attorney, Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said in a memo to City Manager Marchell Adams-David several days after Williams’ death.

    A Wake County judge authorized Friday’s release of footage from the officers’ body cameras, as well as area surveillance footage and patrol vehicle dash camera videos connected to the incident.

    According to the memo and body camera footage, officers were conducting “proactive patrols” of businesses in an area that police said has a history of criminal violations, at roughly 1:55 a.m.

    In the video, officers J.T. Thomas and C.D. Robinson are seen pulling into the parking lot before approaching a vehicle and speaking to its occupants.

    Robinson then walks across the parking lot to another vehicle occupied by two people, including Williams, who was in the driver’s seat.

    The officer then opens the passenger door and questions what the occupants are doing before asking Williams and the passenger to exit the vehicle. According to the memo, Robinson allegedly saw an open container of alcohol and marijuana in the car.

    In the video, Williams and the unidentified passenger can be heard repeatedly asking Robinson why they were being removed from the car.

    “What’s going on?” Williams asked several times as Robinson positioned him against his car to conduct a full body search.

    “Keep both of your hands on the car. If you can’t listen to my instructions, I’m going to put you in handcuffs,” Robinson says in the video. “I’m not trying to put you in handcuffs.”

    By that point – about a minute into the encounter – Robinson had not told Williams why he was being searched.

    Moments later, Robinson is seen pulling a folded dollar bill out of Williams’ side pocket, and indicates in the video he has detected a white powdery substance folded into the bill.

    According to the memo, Robinson decided to arrest Williams for possession of a controlled substance, based upon his findings at the scene.

    Williams is heard asking “why” and “what’s going on” as Robinson attempts to place him in handcuffs. Another officer attempts to help Robinson and Thomas detain Williams, as they yell at him to “get on the ground” while another officer calls for back-up.

    Robinson then deployed his taser, which contacted Williams as he attempted to flee, while the other officers continue to yell at him to put his hands behind his back.

    Another taser was deployed but did not make contact, according to police.

    After a physical scuffle, Williams tried to escape the officers again but lost his balance and fell while attempting to run across the parking lot.

    A taser was deployed again at this point, which police said also did not contact Williams.

    An officer is heard yelling at Williams to “get on the f***king ground” while officers appeared to put their body weight on top of him to prevent the man from getting up.

    Robinson and Thomas deployed two separate tasers in “drive stun mode” which both contacted Williams in about a 50-second time span, police said.

    According to the memo, the taser deployed by Thomas contacted Williams’ side while Robinson’s taser contacted the left side of Williams’ back.

    Williams appeared to be audibly and visibly in distress as the officers continued yelling at him to stay on the ground with his hands behind his back, the video shows.

    “Put your hands behind your back or you’re gonna get tased,” one of the officers said.

    At this point, Williams is heard saying he has “heart problems” as he begged for officers to stop.

    An officer then counted down from three before deploying his taser again.

    Williams is then heard screaming and seen wriggling underneath the officers who were still yelling at him to put his hands behind his back.

    At that point, officers put Williams in handcuffs as an “unintended Taser activation” is heard but did not make contact, according to police.

    Robinson is heard telling the other officers to pat down Williams as officers attempt to reposition him into a “recovery” position.

    Another officer is heard telling Williams to “relax.”

    Police then requested EMS response at 2:02 a.m., which is in accordance with policy, the memo said.

    Moments later, an officer is heard asking if Williams is “still good” and if he’s “still breathing.”

    An officer is heard saying he doesn’t feel Williams’ pulse as other officers attempted to wake him.

    “He’s breathing,” one officer is heard saying. “He’s good.”

    Officers then removed the taser probes from Williams’ body before asking again if he was breathing.

    Officers did not detect a pulse and began performing CPR on Williams.

    They then made another call to dispatch requesting expedited EMS response at 2:06 a.m.

    Raleigh Fire Department responders then arrived on scene and took over performing CPR, according to the video.

    The video footage ends before the ambulance arrived on scene.

    It’s unclear if police were able to locate the passenger of the vehicle, who appeared to flee the scene.

    “Mr. Williams was transported by EMS to a local hospital where he was later pronounced deceased at 3:01 a.m. The cause of Mr. Williams’ death, including toxicology results, will be part of the ongoing investigations,” according to the memo.

    Police recovered two firearms, marijuana and suspected controlled substances from Williams’ vehicle, the memo reads.

    Officers Robinson, Thomas, D.L. Aquino, J.R. Scott, D.L. Grande and B.L. Ramge have been placed on administrative leave, according to the memo.

    In a statement to CNN, Dawn Blagrove, the executive director of Emancipate NC, a legal advocacy group representing Williams’ family, said the family “demands undelayed justice.”

    “That’s what his mother wants the world to know. Justice, not just for Darryl Tyree Williams but, for all the victims of state sanctioned violence across the nation,” Blagrove said.

    “Now is the time for the city of Raleigh and all of America to reckon with the trauma and harm that policing causes to Black, Brown and marginalized communities,” Blagrove told CNN.

    CNN has reached out to the Raleigh Police Department, the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation, and the Wake County Medical Examiner’s Office on Saturday.

    The Raleigh Police Protective Association, which represents two of the officers involved in the incident, told CNN in a statement its “prayers and thoughts are with the Williams family,” and that it has reviewed the video of the “tragic incident.”

    “At this point we could not determine any criminal actions or policy violations of the officers involved. We respect the process and recognize this incident is currently under investigation by the SBI,” RPPA Vice President Rick Armstrong said in the Saturday statement.

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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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  • An off-duty New York police officer who was shot while trying to buy an SUV has died | CNN

    An off-duty New York police officer who was shot while trying to buy an SUV has died | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A New York Police Department officer who was shot in the head Saturday while off duty has died, the police commissioner said in a tweet Tuesday night.

    Adeed Fayaz, 26, had been in grave condition since the shooting, which happened in Brooklyn as he and his brother-in-law were trying to buy an SUV, officials said at an afternoon news conference.

    “Police Officer Adeed Fayaz was a father, a husband, a son, and a protector of our great city,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell tweeted. “Officer Fayaz was shot Saturday night and he tragically succumbed to his injuries today. Our department deeply mourns his passing, and his family and loved ones are in our prayers.”

    Randy Jones, a 38-year-old New York City man, was arrested Monday in connection with the shooting, authorities said at the news conference.

    Police are recommending charges of murder and attempted robbery, they said Tuesday night. CNN has reached out to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office for information about formal charges.

    CNN’s attempts to determine whether Jones had an attorney weren’t immediately successful. The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit that represents poor New Yorkers, was not representing Jones as of Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for the group said.

    Fayaz had been in contact with a man selling a Honda Pilot on Facebook Marketplace for $24,000, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said. The officer and his brother-in-law on Saturday met the man, who jokingly asked whether they were carrying a gun, to which both men responded no, Essig said.

    “At this time, our perpetrator grabs (Fayaz) in a headlock, points the gun at his head, and demands the money,” Essig said.

    When Fayaz said he didn’t have the money, the man pointed the gun at the brother-in-law, according to Essig.

    “Officer Fayaz was able to break free, at which time the male fired, striking him in the head,” Essig said. “As (the suspect) flees, he continues to fire towards both the officer and his brother-in-law.”

    The brother-in-law took a gun from Fayaz’s hip and fired at least six times, according to Essig. The assailant drove from the scene, Essig said. Dashboard camera video from the brother-in-law’s vehicle helped detectives identify the car the assailant fled in, he added.

    The assailant allegedly had led both the officer and his brother-in-law down an alley where the shooting took place, a law enforcement source told CNN. No cameras are in the alley, the source added.

    Jones was arrested Monday at a motel in Nanuet, a hamlet north of New York City, Essig said. Charges are pending as authorities execute two search warrants, he said. Sewell said the suspect likely would be arraigned Tuesday night.

    A woman who was in the motel room was taken into custody and questioned, but she is not being charged at this time, Essig said.

    Authorities handcuffed the man using Fayez’s cuffs, Essig said. “We wanted him to know who, what he did to that officer. … And I think it sends a powerful message,” he said.

    Authorities are investigating whether the man is connected to other reported Facebook Marketplace robberies, including one that happened in early January “right down the block,” Essig added.

    Fayaz was married with two young children, Sewell said.

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  • Memphis City Council takes up reform proposals at first hearing since release of Tyre Nichols video | CNN

    Memphis City Council takes up reform proposals at first hearing since release of Tyre Nichols video | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The Memphis City Council began to discuss nearly a dozen public safety proposals and reforms and grilled the city’s police chief and fire chief on Tuesday morning at the council’s first public hearing since the release of disturbing video showing the police beating of Tyre Nichols.

    “The month of January has deeply affected all of us and continues to do so, serving as a clarion call for action,” councilwoman Rhonda Logan said. “Today our focus will be on peeling back the layers of public safety in our city and collaborating on legislation that moves us forward in an impactful and intelligent way.”

    The council’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee was set to take up 11 proposals in all, including an ordinance to establish a procedure for an independent review of police training; an ordinance to clarify “appropriate” ways of conducting traffic stops; an ordinance to require police only to make traffic stops with marked cars; and a presentation on a civilian law enforcement review board, according to an online agenda.

    Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ”Davis and Fire Chief Gina Sweat spoke at the hearing and presented their plans for changing their departments going forward. The officials also answered questions from council members frustrated with the responses.

    The hearing comes about a month after Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was beaten by Memphis police officers with the specialized SCORPION unit following a traffic stop not far from his family’s home. He was taken to the hospital afterward and died three days later.

    The city released body-camera and surveillance footage in late January that showed officers repeatedly punching, kicking and using a baton on Nichols while his hands were restrained. They then left him without medical care for more than 20 minutes, the video shows.

    The video contradicted what officers said happened in the initial police report, which had indicated Nichols “started to fight” with officers and at one point grabbed one of their guns.

    His death has renewed calls for police reform and reignited a national conversation on justice in policing.

    Five officers involved in the beating, all of whom are Black, were fired and were indicted on charges of second-degree murder. In addition, a sixth officer was fired, and a seventh was put on leave. Further, the Fire Department fired two EMTs and a lieutenant for failing to render emergency care.

    The specialized SCORPION unit also was disbanded, less than two years after it was put into place.

    Sweat, the fire chief, told the council that training issues and the failure of EMTs to take personal accountability on a call were to blame for her department’s handling of Nichols.

    The dispatch call involving Nichols came in as a report of pepper spray, Sweat said. She described that as a “fairly routine call” – there have been over 140 pepper spray calls in the last six months – and the EMTs and lieutenant on scene treated it as such.

    “They did not have the video to watch to know what happened before they got there, so they were reacting to what they saw and what they were told at the scene,” Sweat said. “Obviously, they did not perform at the level that we expect or that the citizens of Memphis deserve.”

    According to Sweat, she saw the video of Nichols’ beating when it was released to the public, but an EMS chief had reviewed it days prior. Before the video was released on Friday, managers had already scheduled an administrative hearing with the employees involved for Monday, said the chief.

    “They did not perform within the guidelines and the policies that are already set. And that’s why they’re no longer with us,” the fire chief said.

    Councilman Frank Colvett Jr. said the Fire Department’s timeline of when it saw the video was an issue.

    “As the director of fire, there is a problem. I think it’s very clear to you now that solutions are required. And I understand procedures were not followed, and I understand we are looking at it. But it’s got to be more than that. OK, director, it’s got to be this is what we see and this is how we’ll fix it,” Colvett said.

    Prior to his death, Nichols had worked with his stepfather at FedEx for about nine months, his family said. He was fond of Starbucks, skateboarding in Shelby Farms Park 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 150 pounds, despite his 6’ 3” height, his mother said.

    Nichols’ mother and stepfather, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, are among the first lady’s guests at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.

    Biden hosted members of the Congressional Black Caucus at the White House last week to discuss police reform, which has stalled in Congress multiple times and faces an uncertain path forward.

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  • Atlanta area residents report finding antisemitic flyers in driveways | CNN

    Atlanta area residents report finding antisemitic flyers in driveways | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Police in suburban Atlanta are investigating after residents reported finding flyers with antisemitic imagery and messaging in their driveways.

    They were found Sunday morning in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, according to officials in both cities, home to many Jewish families.

    On Twitter, Georgia Rep. Esther Panitch said on Twitter she received a flyer in her driveway.

    “Welcome to being a Jew in Georgia-my driveway this morning. @SandySprings_PD came & took for testing. Govern yourselves accordingly, GDL and Anti-Semites who seek to harm/intimidate Jews in Georgia,” Panitch’s tweet said. “I’m coming for you with the weight of the State behind me.”

    According to Panitch, “many” Jewish families in Fulton and DeKalb counties received the flyers in their driveways.

    In a statement on Facebook, Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch said residents “of many faiths” in at least three neighborhoods also woke up to find the flyers in their driveways.

    Deutsch said the purpose of the flyers is to cause fear and division. She also said Dunwoody police are aware and investigating the incident.

    “We are actively investigating this incident and working closely with the Sandy Springs Police Department, as their community was victimized as well,” Dunwoody Police Chief Billy Grogan said in a statement. “If you have any information related to this case, please contact 911. There is no place for hate in Dunwoody.”

    “On behalf of the Dunwoody City Council, I want to assure everyone that hateful, divisive, and anti-Semitic rhetoric has no place here,” Mayor Deutsch said in her statement. “Dunwoody is a community that values our diversity and is home to people of all faiths, races, ethnicities, and more. We live, work, serve and play together. At our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, Jews, Christians, and Muslims worked together planting daffodils in memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.”

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tweeted the following statement:

    “This kind of hate has no place in our state and the individuals responsible do not share Georgia’s values. If needed, state law enforcement stands ready to assist Sandy Springs Police and Dunwoody Police in their investigations. We will always condemn acts of antisemitism.”

    The flyers found this weekend follow hundreds of antisemitic flyers that showed up in driveways and mailboxes in neighboring Cobb County in November, CNN affiliate WSBTV reported.

    The language on the flyers mirror language seen in scrolling messages in Jacksonville, Florida, public spaces in October, as well as on banners hung from a freeway overpass in Los Angeles earlier that month by a group appearing to make Nazi salutes.

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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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  • Monterey Park hero and Tyre Nichols’ family invited to attend State of the Union address | CNN Politics

    Monterey Park hero and Tyre Nichols’ family invited to attend State of the Union address | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Lawmakers have invited the parents of Tyre Nichols and the man who disarmed a gunman in a Southern California mass shooting to attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on February 7.

    Nichols’ death days after being beaten by police in Memphis on January 7 and the mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park on January 21 that killed 11 has outraged many Americans and brought renewed calls for sweeping gun and policing reform ahead of Biden’s address.

    Congressional Black Caucus executive director Vincent Evans tweeted on Sunday that the caucus chairman, Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada, invited Nichols’ parents to Washington as guests of the caucus, and that they have accepted the invitation.

    CNN has reached out to Nichols’ family for comment.

    Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the Monterey Park gunman as he attempted to attack a second dance studio near Los Angeles, was invited to the speech by Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California.

    Chu said Tsay’s story “was so amazing” that she called him to be her guest at the president’s address. But just one hour after Chu spoke with him, Biden called Tsay to personally offer his own invite, Chu said. The White House declined to comment on Sunday.

    Tsay, 26, was awarded a medal of courage from the Alhambra Police Department during a ceremony Sunday. Biden called him last week to thank him for his act of bravery, CNN previously reported.

    “I wanted to call to see how you’re doing and thank you for taking such incredible action in the face of danger,” Biden told Tsay. “I don’t think you understand just how much you’ve done for so many people who are never going to even know you. But I want them to know more about you.”

    In an interview on MSNBC on Sunday, Horsford said he called Nichols’ family to extend the invitation.

    “Earlier today, I spoke to the family of Tyre Nichols on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus to first extend our condolences to them, to let them know that we stand with them, to ask them what they want from us in this moment, to honor the legacy of their son, and to extend an invitation to them to be our guest at the State of the Union on February 7 so that we can make sure that this issue of police culture, culture of policing, which, unfortunately in this country has now contributed to countless deaths,” he said.

    Protesters took to the streets over the weekend to decry police brutality after the release of video depicting the violent police beating.

    Nichols, 29, could be heard yelling for his mother in the video, which begins with a traffic stop and goes on to show officers repeatedly beating him with batons, punching him and kicking him – including at one point while his hands were restrained behind his back.

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

    Biden said in a statement 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.”

    The CBC is requesting a meeting with Biden this week to push for negotiations on police reform, Horsford said in a statement Sunday.

    “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,” he wrote. “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.”

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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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  • A brutal beating. Cries for his mom. 23-minute delay in aid. Here are the key takeaways from the Tyre Nichols police videos | CNN

    A brutal beating. Cries for his mom. 23-minute delay in aid. Here are the key takeaways from the Tyre Nichols police videos | CNN

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



    CNN
     — 

    The newly released videos of Tyre Nichols’ police beating captured the brutality that his family and authorities had already foreshadowed: He was punched and kicked while being restrained. He pleaded to go home and repeatedly yelled for his mom.

    And after the beating, while Nichols lay slumped and motionless against a car, officers walking around on scene ignored the 29-year-old.

    The videos consist of three shorter body camera clips and one roughly 31-minute video taken from a utility pole camera, which appears to capture most of the violence that unfolded just steps from Nichols’ home.

    The videos show portions of both the initial traffic stop on the night of January 7, 2023, and a second altercation just minutes later, after Nichols fled the first location on foot. Nichols required hospitalization after the encounter and died on January 10.

    “What you’re seeing is a fairly significant number of officers who are failing at arrest and control tactics and making up for it with brutality,” CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller said.

    Law enforcement analysts who viewed the clips were troubled by a range of actions – and inactions – during the encounter, from the beating by a group of officers to the length of time it took for someone to render aid to a motionless Nichols.

    The videos leave many questions unanswered, including the reason for the stop, which the officers do not explain in the clips. Memphis police had initially said Nichols was pulled over for suspected reckless driving, but police chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told CNN Friday authorities have not been able to “substantiate that” claim.

    The clips also do not answer why authorities used such force on Nichols, who did not appear to fight back, and why they felt compelled to confront him twice.

    But the videos shed light on just how violent the fatal confrontation was. Here are some key takeaways.

    Videos from the encounters capture multiple officers threatening Nichols with violence while he appears to comply with their commands or is on the ground already.

    A body camera video that captures the initial encounter between Nichols and police shows the officer getting out of his car on the scene with his gun drawn and captures an officer yelling for Nichols to “Get the fuck out of the car.”

    Nichols is heard saying, “I didn’t do anything,” and later, as he gets on the ground, “All right, I’m on the ground.”

    An officer yells at him, “Bitch, put your hands behind your back before I… I’m going to knock your ass the fuck out.”

    Nichols says, “I’m just trying to go home.”

    While officers yell commands, Nichols repeatedly responds that he is on the ground and is heard saying he didn’t do anything, before running away as an officer deploys his Taser.

    At the second encounter, where the beating occurs, a body camera captures an officer yelling at Nichols, “I’m going to baton the fuck out of you,” while Nichols is on the ground and not fighting back. An officer is also heard asking “Do you want to be sprayed again,” while Nichols is on the ground and yelling for his mom.

    The video taken from a remotely controlled camera on a neighborhood utility pole shows Memphis officers continuously hitting Nichols at least nine times, without visible provocation.

    “The pole cam video is the one that really justifies the charges,” said former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey, a CNN law enforcement analyst. “Nobody trains for that. These guys are acting so far outside of bounds that … you really can’t explain it. … One officer kicked him so hard and so much that he’s limping around.”

    In the pole video, an officer is seen shoving Nichols on the pavement with what appears to be his leg or knee. Nichols is then pulled up by his shoulders and kicked in the face twice, then again later is hit in the back with what appears to be a nightstick. Seconds later, he’s hit again.

    Once he’s pulled to his feet, officers are seen hitting Nichols in the face multiple times while other officers are restraining his hands behind his body. Nichols is seen falling to his knees – and less than a minute later, an officer appears to kick him.

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

    When officers let go of Nichols, he rolls on his back and is then dragged along the pavement and propped up in a sitting position against the side of a car, where he remains largely ignored by the officers on scene.

    According to one of the body camera videos released, while Nichols is slumped next to the car unattended, officers appear to say at least two officers pepper sprayed him and another tased Nichols.

    “No one is doing anything to help him. It goes back to the failure to act, the failure to care and the overall obliviousness of the officers that are just standing around,” said former New York police Lt. Darrin Porcher.

    Paramedics appear to show up on scene about 10 minutes into the video.

    Roughly 23 minutes pass from the time Nichols appeared to be subdued after the beating before a stretcher arrives on scene.

    “It’s horrific to watch,” said CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. “There’s all sorts of different injuries he may have suffered. So many of the injuries to the head, you saw kicks to the head, you saw these blows to the head, punches to the head, that’s obviously very concerning.”

    What could happen in situations like that, Gupta added, is that the brain could begin to swell and there could be internal bleeding.

    “That’s why this timing is so critical because if the brain is swelling – he still seemed like he was talking at some point but he was obviously getting worse – the brain starts to swell when you’re not getting enough oxygenated blood to the brain anymore and that’s what causes the big problem and what can lead to death.”

    “He’s just laying there, obviously in critical condition at this point.”

    And paramedics aren’t particularly equipped to help someone with those kinds of internal injuries, said Dr. Kendall Von Crowns, chief medical examiner in Tarrant County, Texas. The focus should have been on getting Nichols to the hospital for emergency surgery or a transfusion as soon as possible.

    “We’re talking minutes,” he said. “He really needs to be treated right away.”

    In this still from video released by the City of Memphis, Tyre Nichols lies on the ground after being beaten by Memphis Police officers.

    Besides the excessive violence, what troubled Porcher was that “no officer was willing to intervene and say stop,” he told CNN Friday night.

    “There’s a point where you have to intercede and say either ‘Stop’ or physically step between the officer that’s assaulting the person and that actual individual. And that didn’t happen,” Porcher said.

    According to Memphis Police Department policies, officers have a duty to intervene.

    “Any member who directly observes another member engaged in dangerous or criminal conduct or abuse of a subject shall take reasonable action to intervene,” according to a policy page of the department.

    In this still from video released by the City of Memphis, officers appear to spray Tyre Nichols with pepper spray.

    Five Memphis officers were fired earlier this month for violating police policies and were each charged with second-degree murder, among other charges.

    Two fire department employees who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” were relieved of duty “while an internal investigation is being conducted,” department Public Information Officer Qwanesha Ward told CNN’s Nadia Romero.

    After the video release, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said he launched an internal investigation into the conduct of two deputies “who appeared on the scene following the physical confrontation.” Both deputies “have been relieved of duty” pending the investigation’s outcome, the sheriff said.

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  • Memphis releases video showing police stop that led to Tyre Nichols’ death | CNN

    Memphis releases video showing police stop that led to Tyre Nichols’ death | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The city of Memphis has released police body camera and surveillance video showing the January 7 traffic stop and violent police confrontation that led to the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.

    CNN is reviewing the video.

    The video clips released by the city include three police body cams and an overhead angle from a pole-based police camera, city officials have said.

    Five Memphis officers were fired this month and then charged Thursday over Nichols’ death, which happened days after the traffic stop police initially said was on suspicion of reckless driving. Nichols was Black, as are the five officers.

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

    Live updates: Memphis to release Tyre Nichols arrest videos

    Earlier Friday, Memphis’ police chief said the video would show “acts that defy humanity,”

    “You’re going to see a disregard for life, duty of care that we’re all sworn to and a level of physical interaction that is above and beyond what is required in law enforcement,” Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told Don Lemon of the video.

    Ahead of the video release, officials were urging any demonstrations Friday to be civil.

    “Individuals watching will feel what the family felt,” Davis said. “And if you don’t, then you’re not a human being. … There will be a measure of sadness, as well.”

    Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, told CNN on Friday, “It’s still like a nightmare right now.”

    “I’m still trying to understand all of this and trying to wrap my head around all of this,” Wells said. “I don’t have my baby. I’ll never have my baby again.”

    In describing what she heard in the video, Davis said she heard Nichols “call out for his mother, for his mom.”

    Video: Lawyer shares Nichols called out for his mom 3 times

    “Just the disregard for humanity … That’s what really pulls at your heartstrings and makes you wonder: Why was a sense of care and concern for this individual just absent from the situation by all who went to the scene?”

    Police nationwide have been under 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. Davis likened the video to the 1991 Los Angeles police beating that sparked outrage across the country.

    “I was in law enforcement during the Rodney King incident, and it’s very much aligned with that same type of behavior,” she said.

    In Nichols’ case, the encounter began with a traffic stop police initially said was on suspicion of reckless driving. An initial altercation happened between Nichols and several officers, and pepper spray was used, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Thursday.

    Nichols then fled on foot, and a second altercation happened – and that’s when Nichols suffered his serious injuries, Mulroy said. Nichols required hospitalization after the arrest and died on January 10.

    Davis said police have not been able to find anything that substantiated the probable cause for reckless driving by Nichols before his fatal encounter with police.

    The department will release the video of the incident in four parts on YouTube, Davis said.

    “The video is broken into four different, sort of fragmented pieces,” that are all relative to the incident, Davis said. The department plans “to post it on a YouTube link so that it can be accessible to just about anybody who wants to access that video,” she said. The video will show the initial stop and also body-worn camera of individual officers she noted.

    Nichols died three days after his arrest.

    Police officials in a number of major cities nationwide have said they are monitoring for any possible public outcry this weekend over what will be seen in the video footage.

    Nichols’ mother is asking for supporters to be peaceful during demonstrations, saying at a vigil in Memphis on Thursday she wants “each and every one of you to protest in peace.”

    “I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” Wells said. “And if you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully.”

    Memphis police officers arrived at Wells’ home between 8 and 9 p.m. on January 7 to tell her Nichols had been arrested, she told CNN.

    Officers told her that her son was arrested for a DUI, pepper sprayed and tased, she said. Because of that, he was going to the hospital and would later be taken to booking at the police station, she said.

    “They then asked me (if) was he on any type of drugs or anything of that nature because they were saying it was so difficult to put the handcuffs on him and he had this amount of energy, superhuman energy,” Wells said. “What they were describing was not my son, so I was very confused.”

    Wells said officers told her Nichols was “nearby” but would not tell her exactly where. They also told her she could not go to the hospital, she said.

    tyre nichols mother

    ‘Beat him to a pulp’: Mom shares immediate reaction when arriving at hospital

    However, at about 4 a.m., she said, she received a call from a doctor asking her to see Nichols.

    “The doctor proceeded to tell me that my son had went into cardiac arrest and that his kidneys were failing,” she said, adding it didn’t “sound consistent” with what police had described as Nichols being tased and pepper-sprayed.

    ben crump tyre nichols

    Crump: Nichols video will ‘remind you of Rodney King’

    “When my husband and I got to the hospital and I saw my son, he was already gone,” Wells said. “They had beat him to a pulp.”

    Wells described the horrific injuries her son had when she saw him in the hospital.

    Read stepfather’s description of video: ‘No one rendered aid to him’

    “He had bruises all over him. His head was swollen like a watermelon. His neck was busting because of the swelling. They broke his neck. My son’s nose look like a S,” she said. “They actually just beat the crap out of him. And so when I saw that, I knew my son was gone, the end. Even if he did live, he would have been a vegetable.”

    A Memphis church is scheduled to hold Nichols’ funeral Wednesday.

    Ben Crump and RowVaughn Wells at a news conference Friday in Memphis.

    The five Memphis Police Department officers identified – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. – were fired January 20 for violating police policies including on use of excessive force, police said.

    They were then charged this week. Each 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, Mulroy, the Shelby County district attorney, said.

    Martin and Haley were released from jail on a $350,000 bond, according to Shelby County Jail records, while Smith, Bean and Mills Jr. have been released after each posting a $250,000 bond.

    The five former officers are scheduled for arraignment on February 17.

    Two fire department employees who were part of Nichols’ “initial patient care” were relieved of duty “while an internal investigation is being conducted,” department Public Information Officer Qwanesha Ward told CNN’s Nadia Romero.

    The US Department of Justice has said it is conducting a federal civil rights investigation of Nichols’ death.

    Crump, in a news conference Friday in Memphis, called Memphis’ rapid criminal charges – compared to other cities and states that have waited months or years in similar cases – a “blueprint” moving forward.

    “We have a precedent that has been set here in Memphis, and we intend to hold this blueprint for all America from this day forward,” Crump said.

    He called for Tennessee to enact what he called “Tyre’s Law”: A proposed measure which would require police officers to intervene when they see crimes being committed, including by fellow officers.

    Blake Ballin, an attorney for Mills Jr., one of the officers, said he doesn’t believe his client “is capable of” the accusations, and his client is “remorseful” to be “connected to the death” of Nichols.

    Ballin told CNN he has not yet seen the video, but has spoken to people who have. He urged those who watch the video to “treat each of these officers as individuals.”

    “The levels of culpability amongst these five officers are different, and I expect that you’re going to see in this video that my client Desmond Mills is not, in fact, guilty of the crimes he’s been charged with,” Ballin said.

    Police departments in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, Milwaukee, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, New York and Atlanta told CNN they are either monitoring the events in Memphis closely or already have plans in place in case of large-scale protests or unrest.

    bennie cobb valencia pkg

    Friend of charged officer describes conversation they had about Nichols’ death

    Memphis will continue to work with community leaders and organizers ahead of the video release, in hopes of quelling any potentially dangerous protests, City Council Vice Chair JB Smiley Jr. said.

    “You will see protests, but it will be peaceful because the Memphis Police Department, the sheriff’s department, the district attorney and the Memphis City Council, along with the city administration, has took all the necessary steps to quell any potential of rioting in our city,” Smiley said.

    Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, seen here at press conference Thursday, called the video

    President Joe Biden is echoing Nichols’ family’s call for peaceful protests, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on “CNN This Morning.”

    “We certainly don’t want to see anyone else hurt by this terrible, terrible tragedy, and we’ll stay in close touch with the local and state authorities,” Kirby said.

    The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Friday it is coordinating with partners across the United States ahead of the expected release of the video.

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