*There are rumors swirling on social media that Tyre Nichols was targeted and brutally attacked by police because he was sleeping with the wife of one of the Memphis police officers involved in his attack. According to Tyre’s stepfather, however, this is simply not true.
“My son was not messing around with one of the officer’s wives. That’s just a rumor,” said Rodney Wells Tuesday during a prayer vigil outside the Nichols’ home, TMZ reports.
EUR reported previously, via CNN, that the Memphis Police Department has terminated five Black male police officers in connection with the death of Nichols. He passed away in a hospital after being arrested by police last month, according to a post from the department’s verified Twitter account.
On January 8, the police department announced that Nichols had been pulled over by officers for reckless driving the previous day. “As officers approached the driver of the vehicle, a confrontation occurred and the suspect fled the scene on foot,” officials said in a statement posted on social media.
Officers pursued Nichols, 29, as they attempted to take him into custody and beat him senseless.
“Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath, at which time an ambulance was called to the scene. The suspect was transported to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition,” officials said.
Nichols died a few days later, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The disturbing police body-cam footage was released Friday and shows him being pummeled by the cops near his mother’s home.
The initial police report, according to CNN, said Nichols “started to fight” with officers and at one point grabbed one of their guns. But neither claim was substantiated by police videos released last week.
And despite the fact that the videos don’t appear to show Nichols fighting back, the report identified Nichols as a suspect in an aggravated assault.
The police report did not mention the officers punching and kicking Nichols.
The former officers linked to his death are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Demond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. Each was swiftly indicted by a grand jury and taken into custody in connection with the death of Nichols.
Meanwhile, there are multiple reports claiming these demented officers propped Tyre’s unconscious body up on top of a patrol car, snapped pics of him, and sent the images to the victim’s mother, as well as the woman that Tyre was allegedly creeping with.
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