Ex-Memphis police supervisor says there was 'no need' for officers to beat Tyre Nichols
A former Memphis police supervisor says there was “no need” for five officers to punch, kick, and hit Tyre Nichols with a baton on the night he was fatally beaten after a traffic stop
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — There was “no need” for five Memphis police officers to punch, kick, and hit Tyre Nichols with a baton on the night he was fatally beaten after a traffic stop, their former supervisor testified Thursday in the federal trial for three of the officers.
Dewayne Smith told the court he was a Memphis police lieutenant who supervised Scorpion Unit One, which included Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith. He testified that the officers did not tell him that they had beaten Nichols when he spoke to them at the scene after it happened.
Dewayne Smith said he went to Nichols’ home nearby to determine if Nichols used drugs, after officers told him, without evidence, that Nichols was high when they pulled him out of his car.
The former supervisor said he also speculated that Nichols could have been on a hallucinogen or PCP and in a state of “excited delirium” — a controversial diagnosis sometimes used to justify excessive force — because he overpowered larger officers who hit him with pepper spray.
