Former officer shared photo of Tyre Nichols with five people after beating, new documents say

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — As Tyre Nichols’ bloodied and beaten body leaned against a police vehicle, an officer took two pictures of the 29-year-old Memphis man and texted a photo to five people, according to documents obtained Tuesday.

There was a lieutenant with the Memphis Police Department at the scene of Nichols’ arrest on Jan. 7 and that one person was shooting video and taking pictures of what happened, the documents say. Nichols died three days later.

New documents released show the conclusions reached by MPD that led to five officers being fired after Nichols’ death.

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The now-former officers charged with second-degree murder are Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean.

According to the newly released documents, Haley took two photographs while standing in front of an injured Nichols.

Haley admitted that he “shared the photo in a text message with five people,” according to the documents: one civilian employee, two MPD officers and one female acquaintance.

The documents say that Haley sprayed Nichols directly in his eyes and then kicked him while he was on the ground during the two police encounters.

Haley never told Nichols why he was pulled over and that he was under arrest, the documents say.

The report says Haley was on a cell phone call during the encounter and that the person on the other end heard what was happening. Haley wrote in his incident summary that he hear his partner tell Nichols to “let my gun go,” but the documents say police footage did not support that claim.

The documents say that Bean’s body cam was on but he took his camera off his vest and put it on the trunk of his squad car.

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Bean held Nichols’ arm while one of the other officers used pepper spray on Nichols and hit him with a baton, the documents say.

The documents also say that Mills took his vest off with the body cam and left it on his unmarked squad car, that Martin failed to disclose that he punched Nichols in the face and kicked him multiple times and that Smith claimed that his body cam was not activated during the initial interaction although it was working properly.

In the documents, paramedics asked the officers to unhandcuff Nichols to be treated but they failed to do so.

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