The former Memphis police officer Preston Hemphill will not be charged over the killing of Tyre Nichols, who was beaten to death by five officers in January.
In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Shelby county district attorney, Steve Mulroy, said Hemphill “did not pursue Tyre Nichols and never left the initial scene” of the traffic stop which preceded the beating, but “was not present for the later beating incident”.
In February, Memphis police fired Hemphill, making him the sixth officer terminated over Nichols’s death.
The district attorney’s office added Hemphill, who is white, to a so-called “Giglio list”, compiled by prosecutors and police departments to contain “the names and details of law enforcement officers who have had sustained incidents of untruthfulness, criminal convictions, and other issues – placing their credibility into question”.
Five officers, all Black, have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to Nichols’s death. More than a dozen police and fire personnel have also been charged.
On 27 January, officers pulled Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx worker, skater and father, over on a pre-textual traffic stop, meaning for a minor violation that might allow police to look for other offenses.
Nichols died three days after a beating that was captured on video, after which first aid was delayed. The footage sparked nationwide protests and inspired calls by activists for police reform and to shut down the specialized unit involved.
In February, not long after charges were filed against the five officers, Memphis police dissolved the so-called Scorpion unit, a crime suppression squad meant to target repeat violent offenders in high-crime areas.
In March, the US justice department launched an investigation into Memphis police policies and practices. In April, Memphis councilors passed an ordinance prohibiting police from conducting traffic stops for low-level offenses, making it the sixth US city with such an ordinance.
The same month, the civil rights attorney Ben Crump and other attorneys representing Nichols’s family filed a $550m lawsuit against the city of Memphis, Memphis police, individual officers and emergency medical personnel, for engaging in “unconstitutional policies, practices, customs and deliberate indifference”.
The lawsuit also claimed emergency personnel engaged in “deliberate indifference to serious medical need” and officers acted with “excessive force”.
Attorneys representing Nichols’s family supported Mulroy’s decision to decline charges for Hemphill, saying Hemphill promised to cooperate with the investigation and “promised to provide substantial cooperation going forward”.
“It is our deepest hope and expectation that justice will be served fully and that all who had a role to play in this senseless tragedy will be held accountable,” the family said.
