The family of Tyre Nichols has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the Memphis police over the 29-year-old’s beating and death.
Nichols died in January 2023, several days after he was viciously beaten by several police officers after a traffic stop in Memphis.
The lawsuit accuses the department’s so-called SCORPION unit of using “extreme intimidation, humiliation, and violence,” and disproportionately targeting young Black men all while ignoring complaints about the unit’s tactics.
The lawsuit describes the unit as “an officially authorized gang of inexperienced, untrained, hyper-aggressive police officers turned loose on the Memphis community without any oversight.”
The officers who were later fired and charged with second-degree murder in connection to Nichols’ death were part of the SCORPION unit, which was quickly disbanded after.
According to the lawsuit, the reason Nichols was pulled over to begin with has still not been substantiated. The suit seeks a jury trial and financial damages.
The city of Memphis, police director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, the five charged officers, another officer who was fired, an officer who retired rather than be fired and three EMTs who were fired for not rendering Nichols aid at the scene are all named as defendants.
The lawsuit says Nichols’ death was a “direct and foreseeable product of the unconstitutional policies, practices, customs, and deliberate indifference of the City of Memphis” and Davis, who had previously started a similar unit while working with the Atlanta Police Department.
Body camera footage of the beating shows the officers ignoring a handcuffed Nichols for nearly half an hour as he slumps against a police car.
The five officers charged with murder — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — have all pleaded not guilty.
The Department of Justice is also reviewing the Memphis Police Department.