Tyre Nichols murder: Questions raised over white cop's delayed suspension from Memphis Police, says report

As authorities continue to investigate the death of Tyre Nichols, 29, who died after being thrashed by Memphis Police Department officers, questions have now started raising as why did the police wait for weeks to name a white cop in the beating of the Black man. On Monday (January 30), the police suspended Officer Preston Hemphill, a white man who had joined the police force in 2018. "The Memphis Police Department began administrative investigations on officers involved in the death of Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023. On January 8, seven officers including Officer Preston Hemphill were relieved of duty," the police department said in a statement.

Apart from Hemphill, three firefighters of the Memphis Fire Department, who responded to the police call, were dismissed after they "failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment" of Nichols at the scene of the assault. According to Major Karen Rudolph of Memphis police, Hemphill was placed on desk duty on January 8, a day after Nichols was thrashed, the Guardian reported on Tuesday (January 31).

The police revealed the names of the five Black officers who were charged with murdering the 29-year-old. However, they waited to reveal Hemphill’s identity. According to Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Nichols’s family, video footage showed Hemphill pulling Nichols from his car before shocking him with a taser gun.

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Taking to Twitter on Tuesday (January 31), Crump said that Hemphill could be seen violently pulling Nichols from his car while hitting him on the ground with a taser, later saying " I hope they stomp his a**." In a statement, the attorney questioned why Hemphill's identity and the role he played in Tyre's death was just now coming to light.

“We have asked from the beginning that the Memphis police department be transparent with the family and the community – this news seems to indicate that they haven’t risen to the occasion," the statement said

“It certainly begs the question why the white officer involved in this brutal attack was shielded and protected from the public eye, and to date, from sufficient discipline and accountability,” it added.

A copy of a police report filed hours after the incident mentioned Hemphill used a stun gun on Nichols, the Guardian report said. The report added that a photo of the police report first appeared on social media after being posted by Memphis talk show host Thaddeus Matthews.

Speaking to the New York Times, district attorney Steven Mulroy said that his office had a police report which was the same as the one posted by Matthews. While the footage verifies the report’s description of the white police officer using a stun gun on Nichols, the report omitted the kicks and punches that officers unleashed on the 29-year-old.

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