Former Memphis officers were frustrated when they fatally beat Tyre Nichols, prosecutor says
CNN
Three former Memphis police officers were frustrated, angry and full of adrenaline when they fatally beat Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023, a prosecutor said Monday during opening arguments in their trial on second-degree murder charges.
Three former Memphis police officers were frustrated, angry and full of adrenaline when they fatally beat Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023, a prosecutor said Monday during opening arguments in their trial on second-degree murder charges. Prosecutor Paul Hagerman showed the jury video of the beating in the trial of Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who have pleaded not guilty to state charges. The three already face the prospect of years behind bars after they were convicted of federal charges last year. A police pole camera captured the beating just steps from the home where Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, lived with his mother and stepfather. That footage led to national protests, raised the volume on calls for police reforms in the US and directed intense scrutiny toward the police force in Memphis, a majority-Black city. Police video showed officers pepper-spraying Nichols and hitting him with a Taser before he ran away from the traffic stop on January 7, 2023. The five officers, who are all Black, chased Nichols and caught him just steps from his home, and then beat him as he called out for his mother. The video showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled. Hagerman said Nichols was being held by his arms by two of the officers as he was punched and kicked and hit with a police baton. After the beating, as a severely injured Nichols sat on the ground, officers failed to tell medical personnel that Nichols had been hit in the head, the prosecutor said. Hagerman said the officers helped each other beat Nichols to death. An autopsy showed Nichols died three days after the beating of blunt force trauma.
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