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, Memphis police said Friday.
Preston Hemphill, a white police officer on duty in this major southern US city since 2018, “exceeded many rules”, including “personal conduct”, “sincerity” and the use of the Taser gun , police said in a statement.
This sixth police officer had been suspended from his duties at the start of the investigation, but the information had not been made public until Monday.
Tire Nichols, 29, was arrested Jan. 7 by special unit officers in Memphis, Tennessee, for a traffic violation, police said.
But beaten relentlessly, so much so that he became unrecognizable according to his family, he died three days later in hospital.
The unbearable 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.
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