MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Damning new video released Tuesday by the City of Memphis of the Tyre Nichols traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023, that resulted in his death appears to show the officers who originally pulled him over not having any idea of what Nichols was originally charged with.
The hours of additional content released by the City of Memphis shows multiple new angles of the deadly police beating not seen before, including new body camera footage and dash camera footage, and interactions between officers on scene.
You can watch the unedited video on the city's online portal HERE.
Footage appears to show confusion over Tyre's alleged charges
When Memphis Police first told the public about the traffic stop on the morning of Jan. 8, 2023, they said Tyre Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving.
One body camera video of Officer Samuel Lively shows him responding to the scene of the beating at Castlegate Lane after the Memphis Fire Department arrived, leaving his squad car and telling another officer, "I still don't even know what the charges are," referencing the reason Nichols was originally pulled over.
That same officer then drives to the scene of Nichols' traffic stop at Ross Road and Raines Road, and has an interaction with former officer Preston Hemphill, who initially tased and tackled Nichols. Hemphill was later fired from Memphis Police and de-certified as a police officer in Tennessee.
Lively asks Hemphill if he started the traffic stop, to which Hemphill says, "We tried to pull him over at Riverdale and Raines, he took off...we just shut our lights off and kept cruising. We saw his a** here at the light...we waited him out."
Another officer, Irma Montes, then chimes in on Nichols' charges. "I don't think they got s*** on him though," Montes says in the video. "Warrant wise. But now we do got some s*** on him."
When asked, Hemphill doesn't seem to pinpoint an exact reason why Nichols was originally stopped.
"So what was the original stop for?" Lively asks Hemphill in the video, to which Hemphill hesitates and appears to shrug his shoulders in response.
"Well you can't do evading a vehicle, because that means there was a pursuit," Hemphill says in the video, referencing his account that they did not pursue Nichols. "Can't add that charge unless you do a pursuit."
Hemphill, Lively and Montes then discuss various charges Nichols could face since he, according to them, "resisted arrest."
At the scene of the beating on Castlegate Lane, former officer Demetrius Haley's body camera picks up a scene supervisor asking him why Nichols was pulled over. Haley says in the video Nichols "just drove into oncoming traffic...swerving like he's about to hit my car."
However, traffic cameras in the area of the initial encounter appear to show Nichols' car obeying traffic laws, and not swerving into oncoming traffic like Haley recalls in the body camera video.
One officer on scene are picked up on body camera saying "It was just a traffic stop," referring to the reason for the arrest.
Seemingly contradictory statements on Tyre Nichols "resisting" arrest
Multiple officers' body cameras at Castlegate pick up conversations where one officer accuses Tyre Nichols of grabbing now-former officer Emmitt Martin III's gun during the altercation.
"He full of dog food," One officer is heard saying. "He even going for my gun too."
Another officer chimes in, "He grabbed [Emmitt Martin III's] gun on the scene. That mane was on some type of stuff."
Officer Samuel Lively brings this up to Preston Hemphill at the scene of the traffic stop, saying a medical provider told him Nichols "went for someone's gun," and that Nichols could be charged for aggravated assault for that.
At first, Hemphill goes along with the statement that Nichols went for one of the officers' guns. However, he later claims Nichols was "politely resisting."
“I told him ‘Get on the ground,’ and he was all, ‘Okay officer, I’m getting on the ground,’ not doing s***. ‘Okay officers, whatever you say,’ not doing s***. He was politely resisting," Hemphill says on Samuel Lively's body camera footage.
No released video since January 2023 appears to show Tyre Nichols reaching for a gun or any of the officers' weapons at any time during the traffic stop or beating.
Where the trial against the former officers stands
Five now-former Memphis Police officers are charged with murder in Tyre Nichols' death.
One of the five officers charged, Desmond Mills, plead guilty to state and federal charges, with a recommendation of 15 years in prison on the state murder charge.
The federal charges against Mills concern his excessive use of force when he and four other charged officers beat Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023, and refused to give him medical aid. He is also accused of lying to his supervisors about the beating.
The other four former Memphis Police officers charged with second-degree murder in connection with Nichols' death are Emmitt Martin III, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean.
They have pleaded not guilty to criminal charges including second-degree murder in the beating of Nichols after a traffic stop that was caught on video— and his death three days later. Nichols died of blows to his head, and the manner of death was homicide, an autopsy report released May 4 showed.
Three Memphis Fire Department emergency medical technicians were fired for failing to render aid to Nichols. Two Shelby County Sheriff's Office deputies who went to the location after the beating were suspended for five days for policy violations.
According to court documents, Haley and his attorney filed for a change of venue to one that has not been "infected" by media coverage to the degree that people in Shelby, Fayette, Tipton, and Lauderdale counties have experienced.
Haley's attorney also requested that the jury drawn would be more representative of the entire Western District of Tennessee than a panel drawn exclusively from the four counties of the Western Division.
The United States Constitution states that trials should be held in the district where the offense occurred. These mandates can only be disregarded if extraordinary local prejudice will prevent a fair trial.
A hearing for the motion has yet to be set.
During a Dec. 4, 2023, hearing, both the defense council and the state discussed the evidence they were able to review in the case. The attorneys said each defendant received more than 300 hours of audio and video evidence to look over as part of the discovery process.
A motion filing deadline was set for March 31, 2024. The trial remains set for August 12, 2024, on the state charges. A trial date is set for May 6, 2024, on the federal charges.