Memphis police chief ousted 1 year after Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, who was at the helm when by five cops a year ago, will not be reappointed after the city council’s executive committee voted not to keep her. Nichols’ death three days after a traffic stop that saw him jolted with a stun gun, pepper sprayed, punched and kicked by five officers threw city policing methods into question and drew federal scrutiny.

The officers involved were part of an elite, crime suppressing Scorpion unit that has since been disbanded. Davis had established it after taking over in 2021. Newly sworn in Mayor Paul Young had already advocated for Davis’s reappointment, but the executive committee — which includes the 13 members of the city council — voted 7 6 to reject her bid.

A binding vote will come later. Nichols was stopped on Jan. 7, 2023, for an alleged traffic violation that was never documented or proven. Video footage released three weeks later showed what Davis at the time called “ ” as five officers the 29 year old. After he broke free and ran away, other officers caught him, with one restraining Nichols’ hands behind his back, another kicking him several times in the face, and a third smashing him with a baton.

Nichols died on Jan. 10. An independent autopsy commissioned by his family last January determined his death stemmed from “ .” An official autopsy released by the City of Memphis in May mirrored those findings, saying Nichols had “died of .” for violating department policies and an eighth one simply retired.

Five of those officers, all Black, have been and other offenses in state court, and with . One of them, Desmond Mills Jr., . for not rendering adequate aid. The came as Nichols’ family and their supporters marked the one year anniversary of his death at vigils across the country. In Memphis, to the father, FedEx employee, avid skateboarder and amateur photographer at the site of his fatal beating.

“Regardless of wherever my kids are, they’re going to call me, they’re going to come by if they’re close enough,” his mother, RowVaughn Wells, said of her first Christmas without her beloved son. “This year, I didn’t get that from Tyre. I didn’t get a phone call. I didn’t get a text message.

I didn’t get a ‘Merry Christmas.’ I didn’t get none of that from my baby this year. That’s the most hurtful thing, because he used to try to be the first one to call.”.