One of the officers charged in the death of Tire Nichols pleads guilty

2023-11-02 22:47:19

One of five police officers charged federally after the beating that led to the death of a young African-American, Tire Nichols, in January in Memphis, in the southeast of the United States, pleaded guilty Thursday, the department announced American Justice.

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The case which aroused strong national emotion, forcing the White House to react, had raised fears of a conflagration after the broadcast of videos of the arrest on January 7 in Memphis of Tire Nichols, 29, beaten relentlessly by five police officers , also black. He died three days later in hospital.

The five police officers, who were fired, and already indicted by the State of Tennessee, were also charged on September 12 at the federal level by a grand jury, for four counts.

One of them, Desmond Mills, 33, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Memphis. The trial of the four others is scheduled for May 6, 2024, the Ministry of Justice said in a press release.

Desmond Mills pleaded guilty to two counts: excessive use of force and attempting to conceal the facts. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, the ministry said.

Lawyers for the family of Tire Nichols, who are suing the city of Memphis in a civil suit, said in a statement that Desmond Mills’ testimony confirmed their accusations, assuring that he was “not an individual actor.”

“We remain convinced that these officers, including Mills, acted under a policy that not only violated the civil rights of innocent civilians, but also caused unnecessary suffering to many people,” they said.

More than three years after the death of George Floyd, which sparked a wave of global emotion and vast anti-racist demonstrations, the United States is still experiencing numerous cases of police violence.