Sixth Memphis police officer fired over Tyre Nichols death
The Memphis Police Department says officer Preston Hemphill violated multiple departmental policies.
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Officer Preston Hemphill (Memphis Police via Facebook)
The Memphis Police Department confirmed on Friday it had fired a sixth officer involved in the brutal death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols.
In a statement, the department indicated that Preston Hemphill, who had been in the southern US city's police force since 2018, "violated multiple departmental policies," including on "personal conduct", "truthfulness", and regulations on taser gun use.
Five other officers had already been fired and charged with murder over Nichols' death.
Hemphill, a white man, had been suspended since the beginning of the department's investigation, but that was not made public until Monday.
Nichols was arrested by members of a special police unit called Scorpion on January 7 for what police said was a traffic violation. Footage of his vicious beating, recorded on body cameras and security cameras, triggered national outrage when it was made public last week.
This led the Memphis Police Department to disband the Scorpion unit last week in which the six officers worked. The unit was founded in 2021 to focus on high-crime areas of the city in Tennessee.
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— HumanDilemma (@HumanDilemma_) January 28, 2023
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Police video showed Hemphill at the initial traffic stop when officers attempted to detain Nichols, but he was not among the officers who chased Nichols down and beat him.
A funeral for Nichols was held on Wednesday, with Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance.
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