Two emergency medical technicians just stood around for minutes, providing no medical aid to a seriously injured Tyre Nichols who was slumped on the ground after being kicked and punched by five Memphis police officers, according to video shown Thursday at the trial of three of the officers charged in the fatal beating. The video from officers' body-worn cameras shows EMTs Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge standing and walking near Nichols while he sits, then rolls onto his left side on the ground, the AP reports After about five minutes, the EMTs approach Nichols. Long says: "Hey man. Hey. Talk to me." Nichols does not respond.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith are charged with acting with "deliberate indifference" while Nichols was on the ground, struggling with his injuries. An indictment says the former officers "willfully" disregarded Nichols' medical needs by failing to give him medical care and not telling a police dispatcher and emergency medical personnel that Nichols had been hit repeatedly. They are also charged with using excessive force and witness tampering. They have pleaded not guilty. Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggles with his injuries. Smith's defense attorney played the video in an effort to show the fire department personnel also failed to help.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies in Nichols' death, but they have not been criminally charged. The police officers were members of the Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns, and violent offenders. Prosecutors have said the officers used unnecessary force to punish Nichols for running away from them after he was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop. In her opening statement, prosecutor Elizabeth Rogers referred to the punishment as a "run tax." Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during a traffic stop but ran away, police video shows. The five former officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home as he called out for his mother.
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Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. The Memphis Police Department fired the three officers, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., and all five were indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals. An autopsy report shows Nichols died of blows to the head.
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