bakgrund
Dödsmisshandeln av Tyre Nichols
Wikipedia (en)
On January 7, 2023, five black police officers of the Memphis Police Department (MPD), severely assaulted Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man, during a traffic stop. Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition and died three days later.The officers claimed to have stopped Nichols for reckless driving. They removed him from his motor vehicle and deployed pepper spray and a taser on him. During the incident, Nichols managed to escape temporarily. When officers recaptured Nichols, they assaulted him for about three minutes, punching and kicking him in the head and striking him on the back with a baton while he was restrained.
Both the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice opened investigations, and the five officers were dismissed on January 20.
The preliminary results of an autopsy commissioned by Nichol's family and released on January 23, found "extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating". The five officers were arrested on January 26 and charged with murder, kidnapping, assault, and misconduct. Three firefighters – two emergency medical technicians and a lieutenant – who attended the scene were relieved of duty and subsequently fired for failing to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Nichols. As of February 7, 2022 a total of 12 police officers have been relieved of duty, 10 of which were on the call. A White officer, was involved in the initial traffic stop and tasing but not in the subsequent filmed beating.On January 27, the MPD released four clips of edited video from January 7, showing various events between 8:24 p.m. and 9:02 p.m.; the release of this police body camera footage plus surveillance footage were followed by widespread protests.