On Tuesday (January 30), recordings from the night Nichols was pulled over and beaten by Memphis officers were made public following a state judge’s order, per NBC News.
The new footage shows what police and others said and did before, during, and after the beating. Nichols died on January 10, 2023, three days after he was pulled over and brutally beaten by officers.
In the footage, officers and paramedics suggested Nichols was high on drugs. As Nichols appeared to be slouched and unresponsive, one medical technician said “He’s not injured. He’s just high.”
Nichols’ autopsy later showed only low levels of alcohol and THC in his system.
In the body camera footage of former Memphis Police Officer Tadarrius Bean, one officer can be heard saying, “I seen you tackle him, I was like **** I gotta get in this fight.”
Another individual later said “It’ll be justified” before someone else said, “We need to go ahead and call us in for this one.”
At another point in the recordings, an officer said “Mane listen, everybody rocking his ***.”
The video also shows a female officer discussing what she witnessed with a colleague.
“You should have seen him,” she said.
“They don’t give a [expletive]. I used to work with the big guy. He didn’t give a [expletive],” she said of the officers involved.
She went on to say, “They’re a little too–,” before a male worker chimed in saying, “Hands-on.”
“It’s like they’re trying to up one,” the female officers said. “Like dude– pepper spray, taser. It’s not even a felony. You’ve got to be smarter. How are you using your pepper spray and then tasing him? What the [expletive].”
The new recordings come after ex-officers Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, and, Justin Smith were charged and pleaded not guilty to civil rights violations in federal court and second-degree murder and other offenses in state court. Former officer Desmond Mills Jr. was also charged but pleaded guilty in November in federal court. Mills also intends to plead guilty to state charges.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who are representing Nichols’ family, said they are reviewing the additional footage but expect it will “affirm what we have said from day one: that there was absolutely no justification for the officers’ brutal and inhumane actions.”
“We will continue our unflinching look at this tragedy and stand strongly with Tyre’s family in their continued grief and fight for justice,” the attorneys said.
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