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“We are looking at everybody who had any kind of involvement in this incident,” Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy told CNN days after release of public body camera and surveillance footage in the January 7 encounter. “We’re looking at everybody.”
Five Black officers pleaded not guilty at their arraignment on February 17 after they were fired January 20, then indicted on seven counts each, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping and official misconduct. They are due back in court on May 1.
A sixth officer, who is White, was fired and disciplined for violating policies in the Nichols case and a seventh officer, who has not been publicly identified and was originally suspended pending an investigation, has been fired, Memphis Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink told a city council committee on March 7.
In total: Seven police officers were fired, three were suspended, one retired and two had their investigations dropped as a result of the probes, she said.
The officer who retired likely would have been terminated, Sink said, but didn’t elaborate on what that officer was accused of doing.
Nearly two months after the incident, the Department of Justice said it will perform a review of the Memphis Police Department, the department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services announced Wednesday.
Initially, officials were expected Wednesday to release about 20 more hours of footage from the night of the beating in early January, along with some records from the city’s now-finished internal probe into 13 police officers and four fire department personnel, a Memphis official said. Now, that release is on hold amid a legal challenge from one of the former officers charged in Nichols’ death.
A hearing on the issue is set to take place Wednesday afternoon after a motion was filed by the ex-officer’s attorney, Allison Fouche, a spokesperson for the Memphis mayor’s office, told CNN.
All the fired officers were part of the force’s SCORPION unit – created to tackle rising crime in the city and disbanded amid national outcry following Nichols’ death – the department has confirmed. Those charged are accused of assaulting another young Black man three days before the Nichols encounter, states a federal lawsuit filed February 7 that also alleges the city failed to prevent or address an alleged pattern of policing abuses in the SCORPION unit; the city didn’t immediately respond, and the department wouldn’t comment.
Further, the charged officers are accused of internal police misconduct and policy violations – including making false statements about Nichols’ arrest and bragging about the beating – that could result in bans from other state law enforcement agencies if decertification request letters that detail the claims are granted.
None of the fired officers previously had been disciplined for excessive force, their personnel files show.
The DOJ review, requested by the mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, and the city’s police chief, will cover “policies, practices, training, data, and processes related to MPD’s use-of-force, de-escalation, and specialized units,” according to a news release.
Beyond the six fired Memphis police officers, at least seven others will face discipline in the wake of Nichols’ death, City Attorney Jennifer Sink said February 7. The policy violations are not criminal, she said, adding, “The investigation is ongoing. There could be more.”
Potential charges “of false reporting” on the initial police report remain under scrutiny, as does every other person at the scene, the district attorney’s office spokesperson Erica Williams told CNN on February 1.
The city had previously said that three Memphis Fire Department personnel who responded to the scene – two emergency medical technicians and a fire lieutenant – were fired, though none was criminally charged. On Tuesday, Memphis Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink said a fourth fire department worker was suspended.
Additionally, two Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies were suspended for five days each without pay for their parts in the case, leaders of those agencies have said.
Here’s what we know so far about those involved:
Bean, 24, was released on a $250,000 bond by January 27, Shelby County Jail records show.
Bean joined the department as a recruit in August 2020 and was commissioned as an officer in January 2021, personnel records show. He was transferred to the SCORPION unit in August.
Bean’s lawyer, John Keith Perry, said after the arraignment his client was “doing his job” at the time of the fatal encounter and that he has seen no information indicating a murder was committed.
No previous disciplinary action involving Bean is in the personnel files reviewed by CNN.
Bean was initially recording his encounter with Nichols but removed his camera while the scene was still active, his decertification request letter states. He took the camera off his vest and left it on the trunk of a car before walking away to “have a conversation with other officers about the incident,” the letter says.
At one point, Bean and Officer Justin Smith held Nichols by the arms while other officers pepper-sprayed and “excessively struck” him with a baton, the department says. Bean and Smith also admitted to punching Nichols several times as they tried to handcuff him, the letters say.
Haley, 30, was released on a $350,000 bond on January 27, jail records show. His defense attorney did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
Haley joined the department as a recruit in August 2020 and was commissioned as an officer in January 2021, personnel records show.
Haley, one of the first officers on the scene who dragged Nichols out of his car, didn’t turn his camera on before the confrontation, according to the statement of internal charges.
Haley “forced (Nichols) out of his vehicle while using loud profanity and wearing a black sweatshirt hoodie over (his) head” and “never told the driver the purpose of the vehicle stop or that he was under arrest,” the documents say.
In the following moments, Haley pepper-sprayed Nichols directly in the eyes, then he and Officer Emmitt Martin III kicked him on the ground as he was being handcuffed, the documents say.
The documents do not clarify whether Haley turned on his camera the second time he encountered Nichols, who was confronted by officers again after he fled on foot.
Haley admitted to investigators he took cell phone photos of a beaten Nichols and texted one to others, the decertification request letters that became public February 7 show.
“On your personal cell phone, you took two photographs while standing in front of the obviously injured subject after he was handcuffed,” stated the document sent to the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission and published online by CNN affiliate WMC.
