US Vice President Kamala Harris to attend Tyre Nichols funeral
US Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Memphis for the funeral of Tyre Nichols, highlighting the political impact from his death following a brutal police beating.
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US Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the funeral of Tyre Nichols, the black motorist whose death after a beating by police shocked the nation, the White House announced.
Ms Harris “will travel to Memphis, Tennessee to attend the funeral” on Wednesday US time, the White House said.
The choice of such a high-profile representative from the White House underscores the political impact from Nichols’ death after a brutal beating viewed across the country through a series of video recordings.
President Joe Biden has described himself as “outraged and deeply pained” by the footage.
Memphis police said Monday that seven officers have now been suspended over the beating, which was carried out by a specialised high-crimes-area unit after a traffic stop.
The unit has since been disbanded.
‘SO FAR OUT OF THE NORM’
Memphis police officers shouted 71 commands at Tyre Nichols within a 13-minute time span before officially announcing over the radio that he was in custody, according to a New York Times analysis.
The orders, which the New York Times described as “often simultaneous and contradictory,” were issued in two locations: first next to his car and the second to the area he fled and would be severely beaten and later die from his injuries, Fox News reported.
The New York Times said the newspaper analysed all available video, which includes footage from police body cameras and street cameras, released by the City of Memphis last Friday.
Despite modern police training calls for one officer at the scene to issue clear and specific commands to avoid escalation and confusion, Memphis police did the exact opposite with Nichols while their body cameras were rolling.
“This is just — it’s so far out of the norm,” Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, told the Times.
Professor Alpert explained that the phenomenon of “contempt of cop,” when officials would physically punish civilians for what they perceived as disrespect or disobedience was more rampant in the 1980s but started to phase out in the 1990s and 2000s even before the widespread introduction of body cameras.
Five former Memphis Police Department officers – Desmond Mills, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin, Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley – were charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault and other offences in connection to Nichols’ death.
All five charged ex-police officers, to be arraigned in mid-February, are black.
Memphis police said the department relieved from duty a sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, who participated in the initial traffic stop and use of a Taser but was not directly involved in the first and second scenes where Nichols was physically abused and suffered severe injuries.
As of Tuesday local time, Hemphill, who is white, was not facing criminal or departmental charges.
MORE SUSPENSIONS AFTER FATAL BASHING
On Tuesday, Memphis police said a seventh unnamed officer had been suspended over the fatal beating of Nichols.
The city’s fire department also said it had terminated three firefighters who arrived at the scene but failed to provide adequate medical assistance to Nichols.
“The Memphis Police Department began administrative investigations on officers involved in the death of Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023. On January 8, seven officers including Officer Preston Hemphill were relieved of duty,” the Memphis Police Department said in a statement.
Hemphill, who joined the force in 2018 and who is white, is suspended “pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation,” police spokeswoman Kim Elder said in a separate statement.
The Memphis Fire Department issued a statement that three of its firefighters who had responded to the police call had also been dismissed after they “failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment” of Nichols at the scene of the assault.
According to a statement by Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, lawyers for Nichols’ family, Hemphill used a Taser against Nichols at the beginning of the confrontation.
But Hemphill’s lawyer told The Washington Post that he did not join the others at the scene of the beating.
Earlier, two emergency medical technicians had been fired.
EMT-Basic Robert Long and EMT-Advanced JaMichael Sandridge responded as members of Engine 55 to the brutal police bashing of Mr Nichols.
A statement from Memphis Fire Department Fire Chief Gina Sweat said the pair, along with Lieutenant Michelle Whitaker and the driver of Engine 55, were responding to a call of a person being pepper sprayed.
“Our investigation has concluded that the two EMTs responded based on the initial nature of the call (person pepper sprayed) and information they were told on the scene and failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr Nichols,” the statement read.
Despite locating Mr Nichols at 8.41pm, patient care was not initiated until an ambulance arrived at 8.55pm, it was revealed.
EMT-B Long, EMT-A Sandridge and Lt. Whitaker were terminated following the investigation.
“Their actions or inactions on the scene that night do not meet the expectations of the Memphis Fire Department and are not reflective of the outstanding service the men and women of the Memphis Fire Department provide on a daily basis,” Fire Chief Gina Sweat said in a statement.
— Memphis Fire Department (@MEM_Fire) January 30, 2023
Video taken during the deadly January 7 traffic stop showed Memphis officers aggressively attempt to detain FedEx driver Nichols, 29, who escaped as they tried to taser and pepper-spray him.
The officers who pulled Nichols over claimed he was driving recklessly.
When the five officers caught up with Nichols, who was black, minutes later, they mercilessly beat him and used telescopic batons and a Taser on him as he begged for his mother, whose home was only about 60 yards away, leaving him unconscious.
Officers Tadarrius Bean, 24, Demetrius Haley, 30, Emmitt Martin III, 30, Desmond Mills Jr., 32, and Justin Smith, 28, who are all black, were fired on January 20 after an internal investigation found they had used excessive force and failed in their duties to intervene and render aid.
Days later, they were all charged with second-degree murder and other offences and booked into Shelby County jail. Each officer posted between $250,000 and $350,000 ($A350,000 -$A495,000) bail and has since been released.
It’s unclear what role Hemphill, who is white, had in the traffic stop. He has not been fired or charged with a crime at this time.
Officer Preston Hemphill has been relieved of duty during an ongoing investigation into the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols https://t.co/haGjoMD4GZpic.twitter.com/IXTy2WeSft
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 30, 2023
The release of the video showing the assault of Nichols prompted protests across the US against police violence. People took to the streets in New York, Atlanta, Memphis, Oakland and Baltimore over the weekend in what were largely peaceful protests.
Many have been sickened by the bodycam video from the night of the police altercation.
At one point, Nichols is lying on the ground defenceless as two cops hold him down while a third kicks him in the face multiple times.
A fourth cop bludgeons him with a baton while another yells, “Hit him!” The video showed Nichols was punched in the head at least six times.
Nichols is then handcuffed and propped up against the side of a nearby police car.
Officers are seen on the video milling about, though none appears to pay attention to the badly battered Nichols pleading for help.
Paramedics arrive but wait about 15 minutes to treat Nichols.
At least 20 minutes after that, an ambulance arrives and transports Nichols, who is complaining about shortness of breath, to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis condemned the incident, calling it “a failing of basic humanity toward another individual. This incident was heinous, reckless and inhumane,” adding it was “about the same if not worse” than the notorious 1991 beating of Rodney King, who was viciously assaulted by Los Angeles police during a traffic stop.
Three days after the beating, Nichols died due to the injuries sustained in the “use-of-force incident with officers,” the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.
A preliminary autopsy report concluded he had “suffered excessive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” although the official cause of his death has yet to be released.
The Memphis police force’s elite Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighbourhoods or “SCORPION” unit — of which the officers involved in Nichols’ beating were members — has been shut down because of the “heinous actions of a few,” the police department said.
“In the process of listening intently to the family of Tyre Nichols, community leaders and the uninvolved officers who have done quality work in their assignments, it is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the SCORPION unit,” the department wrote on Twitter.
“The officers currently assigned to the unit agree unreservedly with this next step. While the heinous actions of a few casts a cloud of dishonour on the title, SCORPION, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department, take proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted.”
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