MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The family of Tyre Nichols filed a civil lawsuit seeking damages up to $500 million Wednesday aimed at the City of Memphis, Chief of Police Cerelyn Davis, the five officers who were fired by MPD as a result of an investigation into Tyre Nichols' death, and several other MPD and Memphis Fire Department employees involved in the investigation.
“We’re going to make it to where they can’t even afford it, where they’re going to train these officers differently, where they’re going to get rid of these units because they’re going to say…We don’t want what they did to Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, to happen to my city” said Attorney Ben Crump.
The lawsuit claims that Tyre Nichols' death was the result of, "a Department-ordered and Department-tolerated rampage by the unqualified, untrained, and unsupervised SCORPION unit carrying out an unconstitutional mandate on the streets of Memphis."
On behalf of Nichols' family, Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci filed the lawsuit which includes 25 counts of civil rights abuse from the series of events that led to Nichol's death as well as policies and practices within MPD that the plaintiffs claim attributed to his death.
“We’re going to peel back every single onion layer that we can to expose the indifference that has been existing in the Memphis Police Department not for days, not for weeks, but for months,” said Romanucci.
The lawsuit asserts that the City of Memphis is to blame for hiring Chief Davis and Asst. Chief of Police Shawn Jones and that they "Turn[ed] a blind eye to these officials’ histories of disregard for the Constitution and the rights of Atlanta citizens," referring to Davis and Jones's history with the RED DOG unit in Atlanta.
There are claims against the SCORPION unit within the lawsuit that include the cases of seven other victims, including Monterrious Harris, who says that SCORPION Unit officers assaulted him on January 4, 2023.
In an interview Wednesday, Mayor Jim Strickland acknowledged that the city expected the lawsuit but declined to comment on pending litigation.
