A 6th Memphis police officer was taken off the force over Tyre Nichols’ death. But he’ll still be paid while his role is investigated.

• Officer Preston Hemphill was positioned on paid depart over the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols. 
• He is the sixth Memphis police officer to be taken off the drive following Nichols’ loss of life. 
• Nichols died three days after a gaggle of officers brutally beat him throughout a visitors cease on January 7. 

An officer concerned in the arrest of Tyre Nichols — a Black man who was severely overwhelmed by police in Memphis, Tennessee, and later died — has been “relieved of duty,” authorities said on Monday. 

Officer Preston Hemphill is now on paid administrative depart “pending the outcome of the investigation,” a spokesman for the Memphis Police Department told Insider. 

Hemphill, who’s white, joined the Memphis Police Department in 2018. 

Lee Gerald, an legal professional representing Hemphill, told Insider that his consumer “was the third officer at the initial stop of Mr. Nichols.”

“As per departmental regulations Officer Hemphill activated his bodycam,” and the footage was later released by police, in response to Gerald, who added that Hemphill “was never present at the second scene.”

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“He is cooperating with officials in this investigation,” Gerald said.

Authorities say 29-year-old Nichols was brutally overwhelmed by 5 now-fired Black Memphis Police Department cops throughout a visitors cease on January 7. While the MPD initially said that Nichols had been bulled over for “reckless driving,” Chief Cerelyn Davis said on Thursday that officers had no proof to drag Nichols over, and called the video “heinous, reckless, and inhumane.”

Nichols, a father, was hospitalized in essential situation and died three days later.

The 5 different cops — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith, and Desmond Mills Jr. — have been fired and indicted last week on homicide and different charges in connection to Nichols’ loss of life.

Two firefighters who handled Nichols after the beating have been also relieved from obligation and the town said its actively reviewing if any additional charges will probably be filed against the firefighters. 

On Friday, officers released a number of movies of Nichols’ arrest, ranging from a visitors cease and ending in him slumped over subsequent to a police cruiser in handcuffs.  

In one of many movies, an officer approaching Nichols’ automobile tells him to “get the fuck out of the fucking car.” Nichols responds that he did not do something, and the officer pulls him out of the automobile and throws him to the bottom, saying “I’m gonna tase your ass.” After Nichols stands up and struggles with the officer, the officer deploys his Taser, and Nichols runs away. An officer might be heard saying, “I hope they stomp his ass.”

Another video, taken from the road, shows officers repeatedly punching Nichols, who was simply steps away from residence.

The officers concerned in Nichols’ arrest have been members of the MPD’s SCORPION unit, a specialised unit fashioned in 2021 to fight violent avenue crime. On Saturday, in the wake of protests against Nichols’ loss of life, the unit was disbanded. 

Nichols’ loss of life has sparked outrage in Memphis and throughout the country. The metropolis braced for violent demonstration after the release of the video of the arrest on Friday, however the protests remained largely peaceable. Protests in different cities also remained overwhelmingly peaceable. In New York and Los Angeles — the place police stood guard in riot gear — there have been some clashes.

But the scenes have been nothing like these after the homicide of George Floyd in police custody, which set off protests that at occasions escalated into looting and arson.

The Memphis Police Department said Sunday its cops hadn’t arrested a single demonstrator.

Prominent civil rights legal professional Ben Crump, who’s representing Nichols’ family, told the press on Friday that the way charges have been dealt with ought to act as a standard for police accountability. 

“We have never seen swift justice like this,” Crump said at a press convention in Memphis’ Mount Olive CME Church. “We want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward for any time any officers, whether they be Black or white, will be held accountable. No longer can you tell us we got to wait six months to a year.”