Two of the five former Memphis police officers arrested in the murder of 29-year-old Tire Nichols had been on the job for a couple of years, and the others no more than six years. And some of the officers had been part of a new anti-violence unit called SCORPION, which stands for Street Crime Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, prosecutors confirmed.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith were fired Jan. 20 after an administrative investigation found they violated the department’s use-of-force policy. They were charged Thursday with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of official oppression and one count of aggravated assault.
Like Nichols, all five former officers are black.
Following the brutal beating on January 7, Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition and died three days later.
Police initially said Nichols fled on foot during a traffic stop for reckless driving and that a «standoff» ensued as officers tried to stop him.
However, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said msnbc on Friday that an investigation and review of available camera footage could not «prove» the reckless driving claim.
Now, a nervous nation is bracing for the possibility of widespread protests against police violence as Memphis officials prepare to release video of the fatal beating that Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, has already described as «horrifying.»
Here’s what we know about the five Memphis police officers at the center of this latest storm:
Demetrius Haley, 30
Before Haley joined the Memphis Police Department in August 2020, she worked as a corrections officer for the Shelby County Department of Corrections. And in a 2016 lawsuit filed in the US District Court for Western Tennessee, Haley was accused of participating in the beating of an inmate named Cordarlrius Sledge about eight years ago.
Sledge said Haley and another officer punched him in the face and a third slammed him face-first into a sink. «After that I passed out,» said Sledge in the suit.
The lawsuit was dismissed in 2018 after a judge ruled that Sledge had failed to properly serve a summons on one of the defendants. Sledge, who filed the lawsuit without the help of a lawyer, said he was in federal custody at the time and he couldn’t complete all the paperwork.
Tadarrius beans, 24
Bean’s family was delighted when he was hired in August 2020 by the Memphis Police Department.
“Everyone was proud of him, proud that he was doing what he loved to do,” said Diane Thompson, whose late brother had been married to Bean’s mother.
Bean previously worked at a fast food restaurant in Mississippi and also worked for AT&T in Memphis, according to his LinkedIn profile.
From 2016 to 2020, Bean studied criminal justice and law enforcement at the University of Mississippi and interned with the campus police department, according to his profile. Her name was on the Ole Miss 2020 Graduation Listwhich described him as graduating with a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice.
Emmitt Martin III, 30Martin was hired by the Memphis Police Department in March 2018 and was described by a former Bethel University classmate as «one of the coolest brothers ever.»
Joshua Harper, who is now a pastor in Missouri, said he followed Martin on social media after they dropped out of Christian college in McKenzie, Tennessee. He said that Martin posted a lot about his daughter. He said the man depicted in the court documents «is not the person I know.»
“I was surprised for just a second because I understood that he was a police officer and I know behind the badge that anything can happen when anyone has power and authority,” Harper said.
Martin was a hard ending on the Bethel University football team.
Desmond Mills Jr., 32
Mills was nicknamed «Box» when Played soccer for West Virginia State University, said one of his former coaches, Kip Shaw.
Shaw, who coached him in 2009 and 2010, said Mills was a popular and hard-working member of the team who played center and offensive guard.
“I’m not one to be very surprised,” Shaw said. “But when I saw the news, he surprised me. I have been training for a long time and you never know. I told my wife, ‘That man played for us at West Virginia State.’”
Mills was hired by the Memphis Police Department in March 2017. He listed his hometown as Hartford, Connecticut on the WVSU football team’s 2012 roster. He spent his formative years in a suburb north of there called Bloomfield.
«We can confirm that one of the officers, Desmond Mills Jr., is a graduate of Bloomfield High School, class of 2008,» school officials said in a statement.
Justin Smith, 28
Smith was hired by the Memphis Police Department in March 2018. Following his arrest, Smith posted his $250,000 bail and was released Thursday night.