The city’s murder rate was soaring and residents were clamoring for action when the Memphis Police Department announced a new anti-violence unit with a fearsome name.
“MPD’s New SCORPION UNIT Launched!” read a post on the department’s Facebook page in November 2021, along with a video clip showing a group of officers in tactical vests at a roll call.
The name stands for the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods.
Now it’s known for inflicting deadly violence on one of the city’s residents.
Authorities confirmed Thursday that officers from Scorpion were among those responsible in the beating death of Tyre Nichols after a Jan. 7 traffic stop.
“The Scorpion unit was involved,” Shelby County, Tennessee, District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Thursday at a news conference where he announced murder charges against five officers.
The attack on Nichols, which Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis has called “heinous, reckless and inhumane,” has increased…
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