Memphis police officers in Nichols case reported use of force

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We are still getting new updates about the officers involved in the “alleged” murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee.

A WREG report outlines how two of the officers involved in the Nichols killing had previously reported uses of force against detainees or suspects. In 2021, WREG asked the Memphis Police Department for four years worth of “Response to Resistance” forms which are supposed to outline every time an officer had to use force and the details of the type of force used. This should already tell you that there were serious questions about how this department was treating citizens. In the end, WREG only got six months’ worth of records however that abbreviated catalog revealed something very interesting.

Two Memphis PD Officers Accused Of Killing Tyre Nichols Reported Use Of Force

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Two of the five officers who are directly charged with Tyre’s death, Justin Smith and Emmitt Martin, both had use-of-force reports within this six-month time span. in 2019, Smith once responded to a call of shots fired and engaged with a potential suspect who allegedly wouldn’t comply with his orders. In the report, Smith said that he “physically took the suspect to the ground.” There is no record of the alleged suspect’s account of the events nor if the man in question was the person who fired the gunshots.

For his part, Martin wrote in a report that he witnessed another officer “having trouble with his prisoner.” He described the prisoner as “irate” and “combative” before stating that he and another officer had to take the person to the ground physically. As a result, the prisoner sustained a “small abrasion to his right eye”. Again, no word on the prisoner’s side of the story. This was the same type of language that was used in the police report against Tyre Nichols as a justification for killing him.

We have no doubt that investigative reporters will be going over all these cops’ careers with a fine-tooth comb after we what all witnessed with Tyre Nichols.