A Memphis Grand jury has indicted five former Memphis police officers in the deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith – are all facing several charges, including federal civil rights, conspiracy, and obstruction offenses resulting in Nichols’ death, CNN reported.
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was violently beaten-punched and kicked- by the five former Memphis police officers in January after a traffic stop and brief foot chase. He died in the hospital three days later due to his injuries.
“Officers who violate the civil rights of those they are sworn to protect undermine public safety, which depends on the community’s trust in law enforcement,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Garland added, “The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable officers who betray their oath.”
The five men “willfully deprived” Nichols of his constitutional rights “to be free from an unreasonable seizure, which includes the right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer,” the indictment reads.
The former officers “unlawfully assaulted” Nichols and “willfully failed to intervene in the unlawful assault,” which caused injuries that resulted in his death, the indictment continues.
“This is going to cause us to change gears a little bit. This adds another layer of things that we’ll have to look into and investigate,” Blake Ballin, defense attorney for Desmond Mills, told CNN, reacting to the federal indictment.
“We have been expecting this federal indictment, and it does not change Mr. Mills’s position,” Ballin said in another statement to CNN. “As in the state case, Mr. Mills maintains his innocence. He will turn himself in on the federal indictment and continue to defend himself against all allegations in both the state and federal court systems.”
Nichols’s death reignited a national debate on justice in policing, reform, and police brutality-especially against people of color.
It also spurred protests and vigils in Memphis and other major US cities.
