Nicolas called his mother
Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Nichols’ family, compared it to the 1991 videotape of four police officers beating black motorist Rodney King, who was acquitted of criminal charges the following year, in Los Angeles for several days. Riots happened.
“This young man lost his life in a particularly despicable way,” said Crump and colleague Antonio Romanucci, pointing to a dire need for change and reform to ensure that this violence occurs during low-threat procedures. occurring, such as in this case, a traffic stop.” in a statement.
Crump said the last words heard on the video were Nichols calling out to his mother three times.
An official autopsy has not yet been completed in the case.
But Romanucci said in an interview with CNN on Thursday that a medical examination commissioned by the family found Nichols was severely beaten.
“The results show that what we saw in the video is consistent with a severe beating, and our independent medical examiner has authorized us to quote that the injuries are consistent with a severe beating, which means that the bleeding found It was so deep that it could only have been caused by blunt force trauma,” Romanucci said.
All five officers – Tadarius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith – were fired from the police force on January 21 after an internal investigation found that they had violated several departmental policies, including the use of excessive force. was violated.
The four officers have posted bail and have been released from jail, a local CBS affiliate reported Friday morning. Haley remained in jail on $350,000 bond.
Two members of the Memphis Fire Department involved in the response have been relieved of their duties pending a separate investigation.