TRAFFIC STOP BEGAN CHAIN OF EVENTS
Police have described the circumstances of Nichols' arrest in vague terms. Even Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who sought the officers' indictment, was circumspect when announcing the charges.
After Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, "an altercation" ensued in which officers doused him with pepper spray, and Nichols tried to flee on foot, Mulroy said. "There was another altercation at a nearby location at which the serious injuries were experienced by Mr Nichols."
Davis said her department has not yet been able determine whether there was probable cause for the officers to pull Nichols over for reckless driving, a traffic stop which set in motion the violent events that followed.
Crump said the speed at which the criminal charges were brought against the officers - fewer than three weeks after Nichols' death - should be a standard for police-involved killings.
In some other high-profile cases, such as the police killing of Laquan McDonald in Chicago in 2014, more than a year elapsed before the release of police video and the filing of charges.
"We want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward for any time any officers, whether they be black or white, will be held accountable," Crump said. "No longer can you tell us we got to wait six months to a year.”
Lawyers for the family also called on the police department to disband the special SCORPION unit focused on violent street crime to which at least some of the officers were assigned. Davis has said the department will review SCORPION and other specialized units.
Crump compared the encounter to the 1991 videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King by four police officers whose subsequent acquittal of criminal charges sparked days of riots in Los Angeles.
All five officers - Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith - were fired from the police force on Jan 21 after an internal investigation found they breached multiple department policies, including use of excessive force.
Four of the officers have posted bail and have been released from jail, a CBS affiliate reported on Friday. A lawyer for Mills, Blake Ballin, said it might be another two weeks before the defendants make their initial court appearances.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiaWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vd29ybGQvdXMtdHlyZS1uaWNob2xzLXBvbGljZS1iZWF0aW5nLWRlYXRoLW1lbXBoaXMtdmlkZW8tcmVsZWFzZWQtMzIzNzg3MdIBAA?oc=5
2023-01-28 00:46:00Z
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