Memphis officials have released roughly 21 hours of new video and audio from the night of Tyre Nichol’s fatal beating.
On Tuesday (January 30), recordings from the night Nichols was pulled over and beaten by Memphis officers were made public following a state judge’s order, per NBC News.
The new footage shows what police and others said and did before, during, and after the beating. Nichols died on January 10, 2023, three days after he was pulled over and brutally beaten by officers.
In the footage, officers and paramedics suggested Nichols was high on drugs. As Nichols appeared to be slouched and unresponsive, one medical technician said “He’s not injured. He’s just high.”
Nichols’ autopsy later showed only low levels of alcohol and THC in his system.
In the body camera footage of former Memphis Police Officer Tadarrius Bean, one officer can be heard saying, “I seen you tackle him, I was like **** I gotta get in this fight.”
Another individual later said “It’ll be justified” before someone else said, “We need to go ahead and call us in for this one.”
At another point in the recordings, an officer said “Mane listen, everybody rocking his ***.”
Video also shows a female officer discussing what she witnessed with a colleague.
“You should have seen him,” she said.
“They don’t give a [expletive]. I used to work with the big guy. He didn’t give a [expletive],” she said of the officers involved.
She went on to say, “They’re a little too–,” before a male worker chimed in saying, “Hands-on.”
“It’s like they’re trying to up one,” the female officers said. “Like dude– pepper spray, taser. It’s not even a felony. You’ve got to be smarter. How are you using your pepper spray and then tasing him? What the [expletive].”
The new recordings come after ex-officers Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, and, Justin Smith were charged and pleaded not guilty to civil rights violations in…
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