Ron Adar via Zuma Press
January 10, 2025, marks the second anniversary of the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who was restrained and fatally beaten by five now-former Memphis police officers during a traffic stop. After countless marches, talks with politicians, and pending court cases, his family are still fighting for justice for their loved one.
“This year has been unbearable,” said his mother, RowVaughn Wells, at a vigil on Tuesday. “I had to listen to a cop tell people that they just stopped my son for nothing, that he was not a threat. We had to hear all of this. But what made it so difficult is the fact that it finally sank in that I would never see my son again.”
Released three weeks after his death, the video of Nichols’ brutal beating shook the nation, with then-President Biden calling Wells to express his condolences. Attorney Anthony Romanucci described Nichols as “a human piñata for those police officers.”
One of the most high-profile cases of police brutality of 2023, the widespread coverage of his death helped shine a light on the long history of misconduct by the Memphis Police Deparment, and reignited the nation’s long-held conversation about police brutality.
As we approach the two-year anniversary of Nichols’ passing, here’s what you need to know about the case.
Three Officers Were Found Guilty on Federal Charges Related to Nichols’ Death
Nichols was beaten by five members of Memphis PD’s SCORPION Unit, a police task force that was hastily disbanded after footage of the attack was released to the public.
In January 0f 2023, Emmitt Martin, Desmond Mills Jr., Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith were all arrested and hit with several state felony charges. A federal court indicted them eight months later.
In October 2024, a judge found Bean, Haley and Smith guilty on federal charges of witness tampering; however, they dodged the most serious charge levied against them: violating Nichols’ civil rights, causing his death.
Avoiding the trial, Martin and Mills both pleaded guilty and testified against their former colleagues. But these aren’t the only charges they’re facing.
On April 28, 2025, the ex-officers will go on trial for second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, official misconduct, and official oppression.
Four of the Five Officers Had Histories of Reprimand and Suspension
A public records request by The Commercial Appeal found that police department had either suspended or reprimanded four out of the five officers before they’d beaten Nichols. Records show that the officers were reprimanded for allegedly failing to report domestic violence, causing multiple car accidents with squad vehicles, and not documenting forceful arrests.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports that the men “faced little-to-no consequences.”
Some of These Officers Beat Another Man Days Prior
Some of these same officers allegedly beat another man just three days before Nichols. Monterrious Harris, a 22-year-old, was grabbed, kicked and punched by four of the officers involved in the Tyre Nichols attack. And the accusations didn’t stop there.
As my colleague Samantha Michaels wrote last year:
As prosecutors review cases, other victims continue to come forward. Darick Lane, 32, alleges that two of the officers who killed Nichols, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith, pulled him out of a car window in June and threatened to shoot him if he moved, according to the Washington Post. Another officer, Demetrius Haley, is meanwhile accused of beating Cordarlrius Sledge while Sledge was incarcerated in the Shelby County jail in 2015, according to another lawsuit that was dismissed on technical grounds. Sledge said he was trying to hide a cellphone when Haley and two other officers attacked him, slamming his head into a sink until he blacked out.
The beating was so brutal that a large group of prisoners on the cellblock wrote a letter to the corrections director to complain: “We are truly asking that this matter gets looked into before someone gets hurt really bad or lose their life because of some unprofessional officers,” they wrote.
DOJ Calls for Serious Reform of Memphis Police
The alleged wrongdoing was not limited to just the indicted officers. Nichols’ death kickstarted a 17-month federal investigation into the Memphis Police Department. In December 2024, the Department of Justice released a jaw-dropping, 73-page report detailing the department’s long pattern of misconduct, discrimination, and excessive force.
“Our investigation found that officers use force to punish and retaliate againstpeople who do not immediately do as they say,” the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke wrote in the report. Here’s a quick run-down of some of the egregious actions the Memphis PD stands accused of:
Failing to deescalate encounters including traffic stops
Using excessive force even when people were already restrained
Handcuffing kids as young as eight years old, “even when they posed no safety risk”
Escalating confrontations with children, including tasing a thirteen year old twice and threatening and throwing an eight-year-old boy
Mocking disabled people
Using to intimidation and threats
Unlawfully firing at moving cars
Accidentally pepper spraying and firing Tasers at each other
Higher-ups reportedly failed to hold their officers accountable and didn’t conduct thorough investigations into many of these incidents. The report concludes with a serious call for reform, recommending 18 remedial measures.
“This process and these findings uncovered that our city has a lot of work to do,” said Reagan Fondren, Acting US Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, in a statement. “Memphians are rightly concerned with gun violence and violent crime. They are also rightly concerned about the collective approach that we must take to tackle these issues.”
In response to the report, the city plans to hire former Judge Bernice Donald, Tennessee’s first Black woman to hold a judgeship, to supervise the department. According to ABC 24, Donald will lead nine-person task force to come up with a plan for reform.
What Happens Next?
Tyre Nichols’ family is suing the city of Memphis, several current and former Memphis PD officials, and all the officers involved for $550 million. The complaint states that Memphis police lied to Nichols’ mother about his arrest, claiming that he was driving under the influence.
The suit, like the Justice Department report, also claims that officials turned a “blind eye” to the SCORPION unit’s violent policing.
“How does this horrific and unconstitutional treatment of Black men and women by law enforcement continue to happen?” said attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Nichols’ family, in a statement that likened the Memphis officers to the lynch mob that murdered Emmett Till. “Tyre’s lynch mob was dressed in department sweatshirts and vests,” Crump wrote,” sanctioned by the entities that supplied them.”
On January 3, Judge Mark Norris pushed the trial to July 2026—the second such delay—citing several reasons, including that officials would prefer proceedings to start after the separate murder trial begins.
