The five former Memphis police officers charged with second degree murder for the death of Tyre Nichols all pleaded not guilty to the crime. Moreover, the court arraigned Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith on Friday morning (February 17). Furthermore, officials also charged them with aggravated assault and kidnapping. In addition, Memphis PD terminated them from their posts on January 21, shortly after the incident. Their next court date is on May 1, and the judge said the case may take some time.
“This is the beginning of the process,” Nichols’ mother RowVaughn Wells stated after the hearing. “I want each and every one of those police officers to look me in the face. They did not do that today.” Alongside attorney Ben Crump, Nichols’ family spoke to the media in a press conference following Friday’s hearing. “It’s important that we move swiftly toward justice, so we don’t want there to be any unnecessary delays in prosecuting this case,” Crump expressed. However, one of the police officer’s attorneys said that much about the case is still unclear.
“There’s a lot we don’t know,” said attorney William Casey, who represents defendant Martin. “There’s a lot that we don’t see, and we want to be able to present a complete picture of this stop, particularly the initial stop.” Not only did the police department fire these officers, but they shut down the SCORPION Unit they belonged to. “That particular night, you’re looking at an isolated incident and [trying] to measure the person.” That was defense attorney John Keith Perry, representative of former officer Bean.
Furthermore, the five officials beat Nichols at a traffic stop, who was a 29-year-old father. He passed away three days after the incident, and footage from the stop made rounds on media platforms. Also, authorities will issue a “statement of charges” to several more Memphis force members for policy violations in this case. While other law officials face repercussions for their involvement in the tragedy, most eyes are on the five defendants. Stay tuned to HNHH for the latest pressing updates from the Tyre Nichols case.