MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An attorney for one of the five police officers fired and indicted for involvement in the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols released a statement Saturday questioning whether his client's actions warrant the charges against him.
All five of the Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers are due in court Feb. 17, 2023 at 9 a.m.
Blake Ballin, attorney for Desmond Mills Jr., said he believes there are "questions that remain" about his client's involvement in the death of Tyre Nichols.
Here is Ballin's full statement:
"The videos released on January 27 have produced as many questions as they have answers. The question of whether this city would react to these videos and mourn with Tyre Nichols’s family in a peaceful way has been answered.
Some of the questions that remain will require a focus on Desmond Mills’s individual actions; on what Desmond knew and what he was able to see when he arrived late to the scene; on what Desmond knew and what he was able to see after he was pepper sprayed; and on whether Desmond’s actions crossed the lines that were crossed by other officers during this incident.
We continue to urge caution and patience in judging Desmond Mills’s actions.
We are confident that the questions of whether Desmond crossed the lines that others crossed and whether he committed the crimes charged will be answered with a resounding no."
On Friday night, protesters shut down parts of Interstate 55 in Memphis after video was released showing the police beating of Tyre Nichols.
The City of Memphis released several videos Friday evening showing five Memphis police officers beating Nichols. He died three days after those videos were recorded.
On Friday afternoon, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced the SCORPION unit, which the five officers charged in Nichols' death worked for, "has been and remains inactive" during MPD's internal investigation into the Jan. 7 traffic stop that led to Nichols' death.
Activists, former law enforcement officers and the family of Tyre Nichols were calling for immediate disbandment of the unit.
That disbandment came on Saturday as MPD released a statement regarding the unit's deactivation: