Officer texted photo of Nichols
Image of beaten victim sent to 5
MEMPHIS — As Tyre Nichols sat propped against a police car, bloodied, dazed, and handcuffed after being beaten by a group of Memphis police officers, one of those officers took a picture of him and sent it to at least five people, the Memphis Police Department said in a document released by the state Tuesday.
The document was sent to the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission as part of a request last month for the regulatory agency to decertify five officers involved in the beating. Those officers have since been fired and charged with second-degree murder in Nichols’s death.
The decertification, which was requested by Chief Cerelyn Davis of the Memphis police, would make the fired officers ineligible to work as police officers in the state.
In the newly released documents, police officials said that one of the five officers, Demetrius Haley, admitted to sending a photograph of Nichols to at least five people, including two fellow officers, a civilian employee of the department, and a female acquaintance. A sixth person also received the photo, the records state.
Michael Stengel, a lawyer for Haley, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Videos of the beating that were released by the city last month appeared to show Haley taking pictures of Nichols a few minutes after the beating, when the police officers had propped him up against a police car. The videos show Haley shining a flashlight on Nichols and appearing to take a photograph with his phone. He then looks briefly at his phone and, a few seconds later, appears to take another picture.
Memphis Police Department policy prohibits officers from using personal cellphones while performing patrol duties, such as driving a police vehicle, handling calls for service, or conducting traffic stops. The department’s letter said Haley had used a personal cellphone.
Haley drove to the scene after the other officers had found Nichols and was not present for much of the assault, when officers kicked, punched, and used a baton to strike Nichols. When Haley arrived, officers were in the process of handcuffing Nichols, who was groaning in pain, and had pinned him to the ground on his stomach. Even so, Haley ran up and delivered a strong kick to Nichols’s head or upper body.
Nichols was left bloody on the concrete, and he repeatedly fell over after officers propped him up next to a police car. He died three days later.
His death sparked protests in several cities after the videos were released, and the Memphis Police Department said it was disbanding the unit that the officers had been assigned to. Known as Scorpion, it was created to target neighborhoods with high crime rates.
The department also suspended two additional officers, one of whom had fired the Taser at Nichols as he ran away. Later, as that officer’s body camera continued rolling, the officer said, “I hope they stomp his ass.”
The fallout also extended to the Fire Department, with the fire chief terminating two emergency medical technicians who had been the first medical workers to arrive on the scene, as well as a fire lieutenant. A state board suspended the EMTs’ licenses last week, saying they had not provided medical care to Nichols for 19 minutes after arriving at the scene following the beating. The fire chief said that the lieutenant had never gotten off the fire truck.