Five officers have already been fired and charged with murder. On Friday, Memphis police announced that a sixth officer involved in the fatal beating of African American Tire Nichols has in turn been fired. Preston Hemphill, a white police officer on duty in this major southern US city since 2018, “exceeded many rules”, including “personal conduct”, “sincerity” and the use of the Taser gun , police said in a statement.
This sixth police officer had been suspended from his duties at the start of the investigation, but this had not been made public until Monday. Tire Nichols, 29, was arrested on January 7 by agents from a special unit in Memphis, in the southern United States, for a traffic violation according to the police.
Unbearable images
But beaten relentlessly, so much so that he had become unrecognizable according to his family, he died three days later in hospital. The unbearable images of the arrest were broadcast, without cuts, by the largest channels in the country, raising fears of a social conflagration to the authorities.
During the funeral of the young man on Wednesday, the speakers – who included the American vice-president Kamala Harris – rose up against the police violence.