Dismissals in case of Tyre Nichols continue
2023.01.31 14:59
Dismissals in case of Tyre Nichols continue
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – After discovering that Tyre Nichols had been beaten and left handcuffed on the ground without receiving medical attention for nearly 15 minutes, investigators dismissed three members of the Memphis Fire Department who responded to the fatal police confrontation.
A statement from the fire department says that emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge didn’t check on Nichols when they got there, and fire Lieutenant Michelle Whitaker stayed in the car with the driver.
According to a statement released by Fire Chief Gina Sweat, an internal review of their behavior revealed that all three employees “violated numerous (fire department) policies and protocols.”
The Memphis Police Department announced that seven of its officers had been relieved of duty for their roles in the confrontation that resulted in the death of 29-year-old Black man Nichols on January 10. This announcement coincided with the terminations. This number included five officers who were fired from the force and were charged with murder last week.
The case involves five Black police officers. The beating has been portrayed by Nichols’ family lawyers as the latest instance of an African American victim being brutalized as a result of racially biased police practices that profile people of color, even when the officers in question are non-white.
According to the police department, a sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, was given a pay suspension pending a hearing, and a seventh officer, who was not immediately identified, was also relieved of duty without pay. Hemphill, a 26-year-old officer who joined the force in 2018, and the seventh officer, who has not been named, have not faced any criminal charges.
A spokesperson for the police department declined to explain why the suspensions were not made public earlier.
In connection with Nichols’ arrest on Jan. 7 during a traffic stop, Police Chief Cerelyn Davis stated that an unspecified number of officers remained under investigation for policy violations.
On Thursday, the five officers who were fired on January 20—Justin Smith, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, Demetrius Haley, and Tadarrius Bean—were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct, and oppression in Nichols’s death.
According to the officer’s attorney, Lee Gerald, Hemphill, who is white, wore the body camera that captured the first of four videos released by authorities on Friday of the traffic stop and subsequent violent confrontation.
After Nichols is dragged from his car, forced to the ground, and doused with pepper spray in the video, Hemphill appears to fire a stun gun at Nichols before Nichols escapes with the officers chasing him.
Additional video footage shows officers repeatedly hitting Nichols with punches, kicks, and baton blows before Nichols is finally handcuffed and propped up against the side of a police vehicle. Police caught up to Nichols a short distance away. He passed away three days later while still in the hospital from his injuries.
Long and Sandridge “failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment” when they reached Nichols at 8:41 p.m., minutes after the beating, according to a timeline of the fire department’s response to an incident that was initially dispatched as “a person pepper sprayed.”
Instead, the fire department stated in its statement, the two EMTs called for an ambulance team after an initial “interaction” with Nichols. The ambulance team arrived at 8:55 p.m. and “initiated patient care.” Shortly after, Nichols was taken to a hospital.
Sweat stated that Long, Sandridge, and Whitaker’s “actions or inactions” “on the scene that night to not meet the expectations of the Memphis Fire Department.”
Sheriff Floyd Bonner stated last Friday, following the release of the video, that in addition to the seven police officers and three members of the fire department who were involved in the Nichols incident, two Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies have also been relieved of duty pending an internal review.
According to a statement released by the Shelby County district attorney’s office, the investigation is looking into the roles played by all parties involved in the Nichols traffic stop and its immediate aftermath, including personnel from the Hemphill Memphis Fire Department and “those responsible for documenting the incident.”
The city of Memphis disbanded on Saturday the specialized Scorpion police unit, which included the five Memphis officers charged with murder in the case. Whether the sixth and seventh officers under investigation belonged to that unit was not immediately clear.
Davis has stated that, contrary to what some of the involved officers had claimed at the time, investigators have not established that Nichols was driving carelessly when he was pulled over.
