2 children killed after city bus hits day care
The officer who pulled Tyre Nichols from his car before police fatally beat him never explained why he was being stopped, newly released documents show, and emerging reports from Memphis residents suggest that was common.
The Memphis Police Department blasted Demetrius Haley and four other officers as “blatantly unprofessional” and asked that they be stripped of the ability to work as police for their role in the Jan. 7 beating, according to documents released Tuesday by the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission.
They also include revelations that Haley took photographs of Nichols as he lay propped against a police car, then sent the photos to other officers and a female acquaintance.
Nichols died three days later — the latest police killing to prompt nationwide protests and an intense public conversation about how police treat Black residents.
Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the same officers now charged with murdering Nichols, 29, with also violating the rights of another man, Monterrious Harris, 22, from the same neighborhood as Nichols during a similarly violent arrest three days before Nichols’ arrest.
A city bus crashed into a day care center north of Montreal on Wednesday, killing two children and injuring six, authorities said. The driver was arrested and charged with first degree murder.
A neighbor who ran to the center in Laval, Quebec, said she saw children screaming and crying and watched a mother collapse. Other panicked parents were diverted to a nearby elementary school as police and emergency vehicles swarmed the area.
Immediately after the crash, the driver stepped out of the bus, ripped his clothes off and started screaming, another neighbor said.
“He was just yelling; there were no words coming out of his mouth,”
Hamdi Benchaabane said. The driver, he said, “was in a different world.”
Pierre Ny St-Amand, 51, is facing nine charges including first degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm. He appeared in court via video late Wednesday from a hospital room and will remain detained.
A senior Canadian government official said the crash was not a terrorist act and did not pose a threat to national security. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The driver was from Laval and had worked for Societe de transport de Laval for 10 years. He had no criminal history and a clean work record, police officials and Laval Mayor
Stéphane Boyer said at two separate news conferences.
“As of now, we don’t know the motive for the crime,” police spokesperson Erika Landry said. She did not say why police determined the crash to be a homicide. Laval Police Chief Pierre Brochet said authorities are interviewing the driver.
“There is a theory that it was an intentional act, but that remains to be confirmed by the investigation,” Boyer, Laval’s mayor, said.
The dead children were both four years old, identified in the documents only by their initials.
Six children were hospitalized with injuries that were not life-threatening, Brochet said.
The day care is located at the end of a driveway off a cul-de-sac. There is a bus stop on the cul-de-sac.