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A former Memphis police officer who has pleaded guilty to violating Tyre Nichols’ civil rights testified Tuesday that he was looking to leave a crime suppression unit because he was unhappy with the hostility team members were showing citizens, even before they took part in the fatal beating of Nichols.
Desmond Mills took the stand in the trial of three former colleagues, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who are charged in the January 2023 pummeling. Mills said he didn’t like the structure of the Scorpion Unit, nor did he like the “go-go-go” approach of members of the team, whose success was determined by arrest numbers and other statistics.
“I didn’t like the hostility,” Mills said. Mills noted that Haley and Emmitt Martin were known as the Smash Bros. for being overly aggressive and that Haley did not always turn on his body camera. Martin took a plea deal and already testified in the trial.
The officers used pepper spray and a Taser on Nichols, who was Black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then punched, kicked and hit him about a block from his home. Mills used a baton to strike Nichols.
Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows Nichols — the father of a boy who is now 7 — died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Mills said he was teamed up with Bean when Bean joined the Scorpion Unit in 2022. Mills said Bean was inexperienced and he had to instruct Bean on how to differentiate between the types of drugs they found at crime scenes.
Jurors again watched Mills’ body camera, which shows him pepper spraying Nichols, who is on the ground. The video also shows Nichols calling for his mother and Bean and Smith punching him without trying to handcuff him, Mills said.
Defense attorneys have raised questions about whether Martin and Justin Smith should have been working on the streets that day. Martin has testified he was angry after an on-the-job injury and had seen a counselor before returning to the Scorpion team four days before the Nichols beating.
Justin Smith hurt his knee the day before the Nichols beating and was on desk duty before his supervisor, Lt. Dewayne Smith, asked him to go out and join his team the night of the beating, Dewayne Smith testified.
Mills testified that Justin Smith had checked on Martin and he was not doing well after getting hit with a car on the job.
“Mentally, something was wrong” with Martin, Mills said.
Mills said he pepper sprayed Nichols because he thought it would help get the handcuffs on him. He said he did not try to help get the handcuffs on Nichols because “I was just focused on using the pepper spray.”
Mills noted that he weighed 305-310 pounds (about 140 kilograms) at the time, Martin weighed about 270-280 (about 125 kilograms), and the other officers also outweighed Nichols, who was the “smallest person out there,” Mills said.
The trial has entered its third week.
The Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders, was disbanded after Nichols’ death.
Haley, Bean and Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and obstructing justice through witness tampering.
The Associated Press analyzed what the officers claimed happened on the night of the beating and what video shows. The AP sifted through hundreds of pages of evidence and hours of video from the scene, including officer body cameras.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.
