Three Memphis Fire Department workers were fired Monday for failing to properly assess the condition of young African-American Tire Nichols, who died after being beaten by multiple police officers.
The director of the Memphis Police Department, Gina Sweat, announced in a statement the suspension of two toilets and an ambulance driver.
An internal investigation determined that the two paramedic workers Robert Long and JaMicheal Sandridge failed to conduct a “proper assessment” of Nichols’ condition when they arrived at the scene.
In turn, the department estimated that the ambulance driver “violated multiple internal policies and protocols” on January 7, the night Nichols was arrested in Memphis for an alleged traffic violation.
The Fire Department received a call at 10:00 p.m. from local police requesting help in treating Nichols. The vehicle arrived at 10:55 pm and the young man was taken to a hospital, where he died three days later.
Memphis police reportedly suspended two more officers Monday in the investigation into the fatal beating of 29-year-old Nichols.
At least five officers – all of them African-American – have been removed from the force and face various criminal charges, while the other two are still under investigation. One of them is Preston Hemphill, who is white.
According to his lawyer, he was present when the agents initially questioned the young man, but not at the second scene of the events, when Nichols was hit and beaten by the other five after running away from his first encounter with the agents.
The video of the arrest, released last Friday, shows that the policemen detained the young man, forcibly removed him from the vehicle and beat him, kicking him in the head, hitting him with a baton and even using an electric shock stun gun. or Tasers.
When the beating was over, they dragged Nichols to a patrol vehicle, sat him on the ground and bumped fists in celebration.
The brutality of the arrest, which led to his death three days later, has revived calls by protesters and members of Congress for a culture change in US police, accused of using force disproportionately against the black community.
At the local level, the Memphis Police announced on Saturday that it decided to dismantle the “Scorpion” unit, to which the officers who gave the beating belonged and which was created in 2021 with the aim of reducing violence in the city’s neighborhoods.
With information from EFE
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