MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 22-year-old Black man said in an interview that he was assaulted by a group of Memphis police officers that included the five former officers charged with the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols.
Monterrious Harris said he was beaten up three days before Nichols was attacked by some of the same officers who were with the now-disbanded Scorpion unit.
He said that the black-clad men who ordered him to get out of his car on Jan. 4 did not identify themselves and that he had no idea they were part of the special crime-fighting squad that would be implicated in Nichols’ death.
“They were trying to pull me out of the car, but my car was locked,” Harris said this week. “I thought someone was trying to carjack me. I didn’t know they were officers.”
Harris said he plans to sue the city and its police department Saturday in U.S. District Court in Memphis.
Harris’ lawyer, Robert Spence, said Harris called him about a week after Nichols died.
A Jan. 4 affidavit of complaint filed by the arresting officers revealed that the five officers involved in Nichols’ beating were part of the nine-member team that arrested Harris. The document did not indicate whether any officers were involved in a physical altercation.
City officials, the police department and lawyers for the five former officers did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Harris said he was sitting in his car at the Twin Oak Apartments when several men wearing ski masks suddenly appeared with guns drawn.
One of them banged on the window of his Chrysler 300 and another blinded him with a flashlight as other officers surrounded his vehicle, Harris said.
“Get out the car, or I’m going to shoot,” Harris said one of the men told him.
Harris said he was terrified and put his car into reverse and hit the gas in an attempt to flee. But he wound up backing into a wall.
“At that point, I got out of the car,” Harris said.
The men in black closed in on him and ordered him to put his hands…
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