Source: Lucy Garrett / Getty
Tyre Nichols’ family has their sight set on justice as the trial against three Memphis police officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith, begins to determine whether or not these “men” are guilty of deprivation of rights, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice and more.
According to NBC News, prosecutors pulled no punches in opening statements to the jury.
“We’re going to ask you to watch Tyre Nicols being beaten to death,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Rogers said as the jury looked on. “The beating was captured from multiple angles and clarity. Five officers took turns punching, kicking and batoning him until he died.”
Rogers also charged the officers with malicious callousness by stating that they “stood by his dying body and laughed” and then “silently agreed to lie about it to cover it up.” But the scathing indictment on these officers was far from over, she continued:
“You won’t see Tyre pose a threat, throw a punch or make or kick,” the prosecutor said. “You won’t see any of the defendants raise a finger to spare Tyre Nichols.”
In fact, Rogers said, “officers took off their body-worn cameras to join in the beating. They laughed about the big punches Nichols took and how long it took him to fall.”
Source: The Washington Post / Getty
The case against Bean, Haley, and Smith is so strong that Memphis Police Department Second Lt. Larnce Wright testified against the officers stating that their behavior was far and beyond department protocol for use of force.
Via ABC News:
Wright was shown videos from the night of Nichols stop with intermittent pauses, asking if the techniques being used by officers were in line with MPD policy, according to WATN. Wright said no, with conflicting orders and unwarranted levels of force that did not align with the continuum of force followed by MPD. That continuum of force tells officers to meet force at an equal level, according to WATN.
Wright went on to say that one of them should have stepped in to stop the attack and that even when officers initially encountered Nichols, someone should have attempted to de-escalate the situation on such a low-risk traffic stop.
BOSSIP will be locked in on this trial and ready to update you on all the latest news.