Memphis police disband unit that beat Tyre Nichols

“It is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the Scorpion unit,” she mentioned in a press release. She mentioned the officers presently assigned to the unit agreed “unreservedly” with the step.

The unit consists of three groups of about 30 officers who goal violent offenders in areas beset by excessive crime. It had been inactive since Nichols’ Jan. 7 arrest.

Scorpion stands for Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods.

Protestors marching although downtown Memphis cheered once they heard the unit had been dissolved. One protestor mentioned over a bullhorn “the unit that killed Tyre has been permanently disbanded.”

In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Davis mentioned she wouldn’t shut down a unit if just a few officers commit “some egregious act” and since she wants that unit to proceed to work.

“The whole idea that the Scorpion unit is a bad unit, I just have a problem with that,” Davis mentioned.

The disbanding was introduced because the nation and the town struggled to come back to grips with video displaying police pummeling the Black motorist.

The footage launched Friday left many unanswered questions in regards to the visitors cease involving Nichols and about different legislation enforcement officers who stood by as he lay immobile on the pavement. It video additionally renewed doubts about why deadly encounters with legislation enforcement proceed to occur after repeated requires change.

The 5 disgraced former Memphis Police Department officers, who’re additionally Black, have been fired and charged with homicide and different crimes in Nichols’ loss of life three days after the arrest.

The recording exhibits police savagely beating Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx employee, for 3 minutes whereas screaming profanities at him in an assault that the Nichols household authorized workforce has likened to the notorious 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King. Nichols calls out for his mom earlier than his limp physique is propped in opposition to a squad automotive and the officers alternate fist-bumps.

The 5 officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — resist 60 years in jail if convicted of second-degree homicide.