The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office in Tennessee is reviewing every case — both closed and pending — involving the five former officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols.
“This is just the beginning,” Erica Williams, the spokeswoman for the DA’s Office, told CNN. “This involves any criminal case that (the officers) were involved in. It is any case where there were criminal charges that were brought by the DA anytime since they became officers.”
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith were fired last month from the Memphis Police Department and charged with a slew of felonies, including second-degree murder.
They’re accused of violently beating and tasing Nichols, 29, during a traffic stop in Memphis’ Hickory Hill neighborhood on Jan. 7. He died at a hospital three days later.
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The officers were also charged internally with violating the department’s policies on personal conduct, neglect of duty, excessive or unnecessary force and use of body-worn cameras, according to internal police documents. These citations are not criminal in nature.
Placards are seen Feb. 1 outside of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church after the funeral for Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee.
Haley was accused of taking part in the savage beating of an inmate at a county jail years before Nichols' death, records show.
The 2015 assault of the inmate was so disturbing that 34 others — the entire cellblock — signed a letter to the corrections director.
The warning from dozens of inmates at the Shelby County jail is the clearest indication yet that at least one of the five officers who took part in the violent beating had an event in his past that should have raised concerns before he was hired as a police officer.
Shelby County did not respond to a request Friday seeking information about its investigation into the beating allegations, so it is unclear if Haley was disciplined or cleared of the assault. An email was sent Friday to a police spokesperson asking if the department knew about the allegations when Haley was hired.
Seven Memphis police officers, including the five officers charged, have been relieved of duty since Nichols’ death.
The Memphis Police Department most recently announced the firing of Preston Hemphill, who has not been charged in connection with Nichol’s killing. He was one of three Memphis Police officers who initially detained Nichols last month and admitted he did not witness the alleged reckless driving cited as the reason for the traffic stop.
Bodycam video shows him approaching Nichols with his gun drawn.
A pair of sheriff’s deputies in Shelby County have also been suspended for their response to the traffic stop and three Memphis EMTs were fired following an internal investigation.
