from surveillance cameras and numerous officer body cameras that recorded the Jan. 7 encounter.
In one of those videos, Hemphill's own body camera captures the officer helping pull Nichols from his car before Hemphill deployed his Taser. After Nichols gets out from under several officers beating on him, Hemphill begins to chase Nichols down the road before turning back to return to the car at the initial traffic stop. Later in the video, Hemphill can be heard saying twice,"I hope they stomp his ass.
The other videos released show different moments of Nichols getting sprayed with pepper spray, chased and beaten by at least five officers at once as Nichols' once animated body slowly stops moving. Nichols, an amateur photographer and father of a 4-year-old son, died in the hospital three days later.
Those five other officers – Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr – seen beating on Nichols were fired on Jan. 20 and charged less than a week later on Jan. 26 with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
“I think the white officer in this situation clearly should be investigated … but when we look at the video, that particular officer was not involved in the beating that killed Tyree Nichols,” Dr. Rashawn Ray, a Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, told Yahoo News, admitting that Hemphill’s punishment should look different. But Ray added that the response towards the Black officers should be uniform nationwide.
“What should be happening is that the swiftness by which these five officers were brought forth on charges and also fired from the department is the same thing that should happen across the country.”Cover thumbnail photos: Yahoo News; photos: Gerald Herbert/AP, Memphis Police Department
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