Four of the five Memphis cops charged in Tyre Nichols' death have been ... trends now
Newly-released personnel files show that four of the five Memphis cops charged in Tyre Nichols' death have been disciplined in the past.
The files released by the city Tuesday night detail how Officers Demetrius Haley and Emmitt Martin were both disciplined twice since 2019, while Justin Smith and Desmond Mills were disciplined once during their careers.
A fifth cop charged in Nichols' death, Tadarrius Bean, had never been reprimanded, however.
The personnel files, obtained by WREG, detail how the four officers were previously reprimanded for a slew of violations including excessive force, failing to search suspects, failure to issue a report and failure to maintain proper control of a vehicle.
All five police officers have since been dismissed from their positions in the Memphis Police Department, and are now each facing second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression charges in the fatal beating of Nichols.
Personnel documents show that Memphis Police Officers Emmitt Martin, 30, left, and Demetrius Haley, 30, right, were both reprimanded twice before they were charged in Tyre Nichols' death
Police Officers Justin Smith, 28, and Desmond Mills, 32, were both disciplined once during their careers at the Memphis Police Department
Tyre Nichols, 29, died at a local hospital three days after he was brutally beaten by the officers
Demetrius Haley, 30, was reprimanded twice by the Memphis Police Department, once in 2021 and again in 2022.
He was accused on June 17, 2021 of using excessive force when he put handcuffs on a woman in a February 21 arrest. Haley was assisting another officer at the time, who was accused of dislocating the woman's shoulder.
He received a written reprimand for that incident.
Less than one year later, on January 31, 2022, Haley was again written up by his superiors for losing control of a police vehicle he was driving.
Personnel documents say he 'hit the curb and struck a stop sign with the front grill of the police car' and was issued a traffic citation 'for striking a fixed object.'
But Haley apparently told his superiors he was responding to an officer calling for help when he crashed his vehicle, and the violation against him was dismissed.
Emmitt Martin, 30, also received two violations during his time in the Memphis Police Department.
The first came on March 22, 2019, when Martin and a partner transported two suspects in the back of a squad car, only for an officer on the next shift to find a handgun on the vehicle's floor.
Nichols is seen sitting propped against a car following the beating on January 7
He was seen in body camera footage being pinned to the ground by multiple officers following a foot chase. Nichols was then pepper sprayed in the face, and kicked and punched
Martin said he did pat down the suspects, but was accused of not searching the vehicle. He was suspended for three days without pay for the incident.
Then on November 10, 2020, Martin was again written up for failing to issue a report when he responded to a domestic disturbance call on September
