Death of Tyre Nichols: sixth policeman questioned in death of 29-year-old African-American in Memphis

Tyre Nichols’ lawyers wonder “why the white agent involved in this brutal attack was protected from public attention, disciplinary measures and prosecution”.

MO12345LEMONDE WITH AFP

A sixth policeman is targeted by the disciplinary investigation into the deadly Tabac-American Tobacco Tyre Nichols, for which five black agents were dismissed and charged for murder, the police announced the police on Monday, January 30 de Memphis (Tennessee).

Preston Hemphill, a white police officer in service in this big city in the southern United States since 2018, “was suspended from the start of the investigations (…), at the same time as the other agents,” said the door -Local police spokesman, Kim Elder, in a press release, without giving more details.

On January 7, Tyre Nichols, 29, was arrested by police officers from a special Memphis unit, who reproached him for an offense in the Highway Code: rolled up, he died three days later Hospital.

The images of the drama, captured by the on -board cameras of agents and surveillance cameras, was made public on Friday. We see the police brutally take out the young man from his vehicle. Placed on the ground, it is sprayed with tear gas and targeted by an electrical pulse pistol. He then fled on foot to his mother’s home. Caught up, he is kicked, fist and baton.

misunderstanding in the United States

The role played by each police officer was not made public. But for Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, lawyers of the family of Tyre Nichols, Preston Hemphill is the one who used his Taser electric pistol on the young man. According to them, he dropped “I hope they are smashing him” when his colleagues went in pursuit of the young man.

“Why is his identity and his role in Tyler’s death only made public today?” Asked MM. Crump and Romanucci in a press release . “We wonder why the white agent involved in this brutal attack was protected from public attention, disciplinary measures and proceedings?”, They add “all the answers”.

The Calvary of Tyre Nichols aroused horror and misunderstanding in the United States. Several demonstrations in his honor took place this weekend in the country, without taking on the magnitude of the exceptional mobilization which followed the death of George Floyd, muffled by a white policeman in 2020.

/Media reports cited above.