MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Two emergency medical technicians stood around for minutes, providing no medical aid to a seriously injured Tyre Nichols who was slumped on the ground after being kicked and punched by five Memphis police officers, according to video shown Thursday at the trial of three of the officers charged in the fatal beating.
The video from officers’ body-worn cameras shows EMTs Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge standing and walking near Nichols while he sits then rolls onto his left side on the ground.
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After about five minutes, the EMTs approach Nichols. Long says: “Hey man. Hey. Talk to me.” Nichols does not respond.
Other video seen by jurors Thursday shows Nichols finally getting medical care when paramedic Jesse Guy and his partner arrived at the scene.
Former officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith are charged with acting with “deliberate indifference” while Nichols was on the ground, struggling with his injuries. An indictment says the former officers “willfully” disregarded Nichols’ medical needs by failing to give him medical care, and not telling a police dispatcher and emergency medical personnel that Nichols had been hit repeatedly. They are also charged with using excessive force and witness tampering. They have pleaded not guilty.
Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggles with his injuries. Smith’s defense attorney played the video in an effort to show the fire department personnel also failed to help.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies in Nichols' death but they have not been criminally charged.
Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during a traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.
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.
Guy testified Wednesday that Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.
In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation. A neurologist who treated Nichols testified Thursday that Nichols' pulse returned about five minutes after he arrived in the hospital emergency room. A hospital nurse has testified that Nichols had no heartbeat and was not breathing for about 25 minutes.
The police officers were members of the Memphis Police Department's Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders. It was disbanded after Nichols’ death. The department fired the three officers, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., and all five were indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.
Prosecutors have said the officers used unnecessary force to punish Nichols for running away from them after he was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop. In her opening statement, prosecutor Elizabeth Rogers referred to the punishment as a “run tax.”
Former Scorpion Unit member Kyle Coudriet testified Thursday that he had seen his teammates use violence and punishment during previous arrests, including one in which Haley and Martin punched a man suspected of pointing a gun at another officer and posting about it online.
Coudriet said he was “ashamed” that he was unable to stop his teammates from hitting that suspect. He was not present when his colleagues beat Nichols. Coudriet has since left the Memphis Police Department for a job with the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
Coudriet said Haley and Martin had the nickname, Smash Bros., because they were “overly aggressive.” He said Bean was just a “quiet dude.”
Under cross examination by Smith’s lawyer Martin Zummach, Coudriet acknowledged lying to the FBI during interviews about his work with the Scorpion Unit.
The Associated Press analyzed what the officers claimed happened on the night of the beating compared to video of the incident. 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.