Tyre Nichols’ Family Files $550M Civil Lawsuit Against Memphis, MPD
Tyre Nichols’ family is suing the city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department in the aftermath of their son’s death.
According to CNN, the $550 million federal lawsuit was filed on Wednesday (April 19), calling the city’s law enforcement “unqualified, untrained, and unsupervised” after they brutally beat Nichols to death.
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ABC News reports that the newly filed suit has lodged 25 counts against the city of Memphis and the MPD, including “deliberate indifference to serious medical need” and “allegations of excessive force.”
RowVaughn Wells, Tyre’s mother, spoke about the suit’s intention, asserting that the goal isn’t monetary gain, but justice.
“This has nothing to do with the monetary value of this lawsuit,” Wells said. “But everything that has to do with accountability. Those five police officers murdered my son. They beat him to death, and they need to be held accountable along with everyone else that has something to do with my son’s murder.”
Attorney Ben Crump expressed that this case is for every Black and brown family around America who deserves fairness at the hand of the law.
“This landmark lawsuit is not only to get the justice for Tyre Nichols in the civil courts,” Crump began. “But it is also a message that is being sent to cities all across America who have these police oppression units that have been given the license by city leaders to go and terrorize Black and brown communities.”
The 132-page federal suit likened Tyre Nichols’ fate to Emmitt Till, explaining that the 29-year-old Black man “suffered a beating endured at the hands of a modern-day lynch mob.”
“Unlike Till, this lynching was carried out by those adorned in department sweatshirts and vests, and their actions were sanctioned – expressly and implicitly – by the City of Memphis,” the lawsuit read. The suit added that Tyre arrived at the hospital with his face “swollen to the point of being unrecognizable.”
Nichols was stopped for an alleged traffic violation and “suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating” at the hands of the cops in 2019.
The five Black officers involved—Emmitt Martin III, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Tadarrius Bean, and Justin Smith—were arrested after they were caught on camera taking the young man’s life.
Memphis’ five officers were a part of the department’s SCORPION unit, a specialized squad founded in 2021 to combat violent crimes in the Tennessee city.
The five officers have been charged with second-degree murder.
