A 22-year-old black man said in an interview that he was assaulted by a group of Memphis police officers that included five former officers accused of the fatal beating of Tyr Nichols.
Monterious Harris said that three days earlier Nichols had been assaulted by some of the same officers with the now-disbanded Scorpion unit.
He said the black-clad men who ordered him out of his car on January 4 did not reveal their identity and did not know they were part of the special crime-fighting squad involved in Nichols’ death. Will be included.
“They were trying to pull me out of the car, but my car was locked,” Harris said this week. “I thought someone was trying to get me out of the car. I didn’t know they were officers.
Harris said he plans to sue the city and its police department on Saturday in US District Court in Memphis.
Harris’s attorney, Robert Spence, said that Harris called him about a week after Nichols died.
A January 4 affidavit of complaint filed by the arresting officers revealed that the five officers involved in beating Nichols were part of the nine-man team that arrested Harris. The document did not indicate whether any officers were involved in the physical altercation.
City officials, the police department and attorneys for the five former officers did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Harris said he was sitting in his car at the Twin Oak Apartments when several men wearing ski masks suddenly appeared with guns.
One of them banged on the window of his Chrysler 300 and the other blinded him with a flashlight as other officers surrounded his vehicle, Harris said.
“Get out of the car, or I’m going to get shot,” Harris said one of the men told her.
Harris said he was scared and put his car in reverse and hit the gas in an attempt to escape. But he hit the wall.
“At that point, I got out of the car,” Harris said.
He said that men dressed in black came close to him and ordered him to put his hands up. But before he could do so, they slammed him onto the concrete and began punching him in the face, he said.
“Your head almost blew off,” Harris said one of the men told her.
Harris was arrested and taken to jail, where a nurse determined she needed medical attention, which she received at a hospital, they said. Regional One Health did not respond to a phone call Thursday requesting Harris’ medical records and details of her injuries. Spence said he has requested Harris’ medical records from the hospital but has not yet received them.
The affidavit names five former officers involved in the Nichols case: Taddeus Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Desmond Mills Jr. The police department fired all five after Nichols died from his injuries on January 10.
All five have been charged with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, two counts of kidnapping, one count of public harassment and one count of aggravated assault. Like Nichols, they are black.
According to the affidavit, the Scorpion team was conducting an investigation at the apartment complex when Harris “started slashing his tires” and drove at officers at high speed before stopping.
Smelling marijuana, an officer asked Harris to roll down his window, according to the affidavit. Instead, Harris reversed his car, abandoned the vehicle and tried to drive away, the document says.
Harris, who was convicted two years ago of a felony in Arkansas that could have caused sufficient injury or death to flee law enforcement, had a 9mm handgun, marijuana and the anxiety drug Xanax, according to the affidavit. Was. Officers also found a black holster and live magazine rounds in his car, it says.
Spence said Harris has been charged with possession of a handgun, criminal trespass, evading arrest, possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and being a convicted felon, among other counts.
Harris insisted in interviews that the car did not smell like pot and that the gun was not his. He also said that he considered himself very lucky not to have met the same fate as Nichols.
“I thought someone was trying to get me out of the car. I didn’t know they were officers,” Harris said of her encounter with the Scorpion unit.
“I really felt like God was with me,” he said.
Their encounter happened three days before Nichols crossed paths with a group of Memphis police officers during a traffic stop on January 7 and suffered a beating that led to his death.
The five officers charged were members of the Scorpions, or Street Crime Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods, an anti-violence unit launched in November 2021 at a time when the city’s murder rate was rising And the community was demanding action.
Harrowing video of Nichols, 29, being beaten and crying for his mother, was released last week, sparking nationwide outrage and condemnation from the White House.
Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. announced that two Shelby County sheriff’s deputies were also relieved of duty pending an administrative investigation into Nichols’ death.
Two other Memphis men, Glenn Harris and Demaryus Hervey, told NBC News this week that they experienced a violent encounter with former officer Martin in August 2020.
On August 2, 2020, the complaint affidavit signed by Officer E. Martin states that Harris and Hervey were arrested after Harris crashed the black Nissan Maxima he was driving and suffered a brief leg injury. Started following.
Memphis to Deon J. Corky Simajko reported from the Hamptons and New York City.