Five former Memphis officers plead not guilty for violent killing of Tyre Nichols

Five former US police officers who have been charged in the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, pleaded not guilty.

During an arraignment at Shelby County Criminal Court in Memphis, Tennessee, the ex-cops on Friday pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges stemming from last month's fatal beating of Nichols.

Video captured on bodycams and a street surveillance camera released by officials showed the police brutally beating, kicking and punching Nichols following a traffic stop on January 7, 2023. Nichols died three days later in hospital.

Nichols death has rekindled a national debate about race relations and police reforms in the country.

The five ex-officers involved in the killing are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmit Martin, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith.

The ex-cops, all of them out on bail, entered their pleas during the arraignment where they were formally charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.

They have been fired from the police force, and the special unit to which they belonged has been disbanded.

Shelby County Judge James Jones set a May 1 date for the next hearing in the case against the officers, who face a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison if convicted of the murder charge.

"I feel very numb. I am waiting for this nightmare - waiting for someone to wake me up," RowVaughn Wells, the victim's mother, dressed in black, said outside the courthouse after the hearing.

"I want each and every one of those officers to look me in the face," she said. "They didn't even have the courage to look at me."

In addition to these five, a sixth police officer and three Memphis Fire Department emergency medical technicians, who had arrived at the scene after Nichols was fatally beaten, were also fired for their negligence in their duties. Two Shelby County sheriff's deputies who responded to the scene were suspended five days without pay, as well.

US police on average kill three people each day, according to academics and advocates for police reform who track such deaths.

Police reform talks, spurred by the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis, collapsed in Congress in 2021 after lawmakers failed to strike a bipartisan deal.

The attorney representing the Nichols family urged US lawmakers to use Nichols' “tragic death” to pass reform legislation to stop continuous police brutality in the United States.

The videotaped 9-minute killing of Floyd under the knee of the white officer was so agonizing to watch that it summoned a national reckoning that featured federal legislation proposed in his name.

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