A sixth officer involved in the fatal beating of African American Tire Nichols, for which five black officers have already been fired and charged with murder, has in turn been fired from the Memphis police.
Preston Hemphill, a white policeman on duty since 2018 in this large city in the south of the United States, “broke many rules”relating in particular to “personal conduct”, ” sincerity “ and the use of the taser stun gun, Memphis police said in a statement Friday, February 3.
This sixth police officer had been suspended from his duties at the start of the investigation, but this had not been made public until Monday.
Fear of a social conflagration
Tire Nichols, 29, was arrested on January 7 by agents from a special unit in Memphis, in the southern United States, for a traffic violation according to the police. Beaten relentlessly, so much so that he became unrecognizable according to his family, he died three days later in hospital.
The images of the arrest were broadcast, without cuts, by the largest channels in the country, raising fears of a social conflagration to the authorities.
During the funeral of the young man on Wednesday, the speakers – who included the American vice-president Kamala Harris – rose up against the police violence.