Tyre Nichols' death: Seven more Memphis police employees being investigated in connection to incident
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: It has come to light that now, seven more police employees are being investigated as part of the probe into Tyre Nichols' death on Tuesday, February 7. During a tense city council meeting, Jennifer Sink, the chief legal officer for the City of Memphis, reportedly stated that the charges pertaining to people under investigation would be forthcoming as soon as this week. The charges announced by Sink were administrative, not criminal charges that would be filed by the district attorney or federal authorities.
The total number of officers being probed or under a probe in connection to the horrifying case now stands at 13. In response to the national outrage over Nichols' death, five police officers, who were seen on body cam footage brutally pummeling, tasing and pepper spraying the 29-year-old, have been charged with murder. A total of six officers were fired after the horrifying video surfaced. Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr and Preston Hemphill have been sacked. Bean, Haley, Smith, Martin and Mills face second-degree murder charges. The names of the officers under investigation has not been disclosed yet, USA Today reported.
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'What went wrong on January 7?'
The meeting was held a month after the incident took place on January 7. Nichols died January 10. Council members reportedly asked the police department during the meeting about "what went wrong on January 7," why the names of the officers, who were present at the place were the assault took place, had not been made public, and why the fire department did not view the video of the beating until two days before being made public.
“The number has grown and it continues,” Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis reportedly said, adding, “Everyone that made the scene, even individuals who did not make the scene but also had some level of responsibility are also being evaluated.” On Tuesday, Davis emphasized the need for the police force to recruit more supervisors, stating that they had recommended the establishment of 125 first-line supervisor posts, which would reduce the supervisor-to-frontline cop ratio from one to 10 to one to eight or nine officers. She said that a one to six or one to seven was advised.
Davis said that the cops had "excellent training" when asked whether the situation involving Nichols was a failure of psychiatric assessments or a failure of training. “This is an issue of a lack of supervision,” she said, adding, “This is a classic example of officers with a wolf pack mentality, ego and other issues that mushroomed into a very tragic situation that, as it’s been said, could have been avoided.”
SCORPION unit has been dissolved
Davis reportedly said it was not just the SCORPION Unit, in which the five accused officers worked, that faced a lack of supervisors, but none of the units had an adequate number of supervisors. Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, or SCORPION, has since been dissolved. According to Davis, its personnel have been moved to other task units, including the auto theft task force. “These are individuals who were not involved in this incident. We have at least 30," Davis said
Martavius Jones, a council member, slammed Davis for failing to conduct a formal press conference following Nichols' death. A lack of openness and a failure to foster public confidence in the agency were evident in the decision to broadcast a video rather than holding a press conference where questions could be asked "in a highly sensitive circumstance like this," Jones said. Despite the data being tracked, Davis claimed she had no idea how many disciplinary measures Memphis police had taken in the past related to the use of body cams or their need to intervene.