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DA: 5 Memphis Officers Indicted In Nichols Death; DA: Memphis Will Release Arrest Video After 6 PM CT Friday. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired January 26, 2023 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ERICA WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, SHELBY COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE: Today, you will hear from DA Mulroy along with the Director of TBI, David Rausch.

And so I want to just make it very clear and ask for your understanding that this is still an ongoing investigation. And so for that reason, there are limits to some of the things and some of the questions that we can answer, so we ask for your understanding as it relates to that and I will turn it over to DA Mulroy.

And did I mention that we will take questions after, but they will - we have a really limited amount of time, so thank you.

STEVE MULROY, SHELBY COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Thank you, Erica (ph). Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for coming.

I'm joined today, as Ms. Williams has already said, with the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, David Rausch, as well as assistant director Josh Melton. I'm also joined with - by other members of my staff, including Ernest Brooks, Ray Lepone, Gerald Skahan, but then also most relevant for today, the trial team in the Tyre Nichols case, including Paul Hagerman and Tanisha Johnson (ph). Another member of the trial team, Melanie Headley is unavailable.

We're here today because of a tragedy that wounds one family deeply, but also hurts us all, the death of Tyre Nichols. We understand it acknowledged the grief that the friends and family of Tyre Nichols are experiencing right now as well as the great concern throughout all of Memphis and Shelby County about this case.

We met several times this week with the family of Tyre Nichols. They described an almost perfect son, a cheerful and happy person who enjoyed skateboarding and sunsets over Shelby Farms Park. We're grateful to the family of Tyre Nichols for their patience as we expedited both the investigation and the consideration of charges in this case, as well as the understanding on the part of the family, that premature release of the video could compromise both.

And we did work quickly to expedite this investigation because of the extraordinary nature of the case compared to the average investigation and prosecution decisions in a case like this. We worked swiftly but also fairly and most importantly, in a way calculated to ensure that we have a strong case.

As you might have heard from Ms. Williams, in this case and any other officer-involved fatality case, I immediately called in the TBI so that we could have an independent investigation. I also assigned to the newly created justice review unit within my office, which works independently and separately, both from law enforcement and the rest of my staff to make a truly objective recommendation about whether criminal charges were appropriate.

I want to thank the TBI, the Justice Review Unit and the trial team for working swiftly but thoroughly under very difficult conditions.

Earlier today, the grand jury returned indictments against five former Memphis Police Department officers regarding the death of Tyre Nichols. These are the same five officers who were previously or recently terminated by the Memphis Police Department. They are currently in custody.

They are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith. The grand jury returned indictments against all five with the same charges. And we had previously met with the family of Tyre Nichols to go over what these charges were going to be. And that meeting with the family, I think, went rather well.

Here are the charges: second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, resulting in bodily injury, aggravated kidnapping involving the possession of a weapon, official misconduct through unauthorized exercise of power, official misconduct through failure to act when there is a duty imposed by law and official oppression.

While each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols and they are all responsible.

[15:05:00]

It's important to note as Ms. Williams said that this is still an ongoing investigation and therefore there are limits on what we can say about this case, we asked for everyone's continued patience as we continue to vigorously seek justice in this case.

We also know that the public is very concerned about whether they can see the video about this incident and the timing of the release of this - the video of this incident. I have been in regular contact with the City of Memphis, the custodian of that record, and I can tell you that the city will be releasing the video sometime after 6 pm Friday, tomorrow. And that the City of Memphis should be making a statement somewhat later on this afternoon, regarding the timing of that release.

Let me close by saying both to the family of Tyre Nichols into the broader community here in Memphis and Shelby County, we all want the same thing. We want justice for Tyre Nichols. It's my hope that if there is any silver lining to be drawn from this very dark cloud, it's that perhaps this incident can open a broader conversation about the need for police reform.

The world is watching us and we need to show the world what lessons we can learn from this tragedy. I'm hopeful that we can show them who I know us to be, a community working towards positive change here in Memphis and Shelby County. With that, let me ask Director Rausch to step forward.

DAVID RAUSCH, DIRECTOR, TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: Thank you, DA Mulroy.

Good afternoon. I'm David Rausch, Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. First and foremost and most importantly, on behalf of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, I want to extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Tyre Nichols. My prayer is that God will wrap His comforting arms around you and keep you during this very difficult time.

We can't imagine the pain you're experiencing. But let me reaffirm, we are here to pursue truth and justice. Realizing that we should not be here. Simply put, this shouldn't have happened.

I've been policing for more than 30 years. I've devoted my life to this profession.

And I'm grieved - frankly, I'm shocked. I'm sickened by what I saw. And what we've learned through our extensive and thorough investigation. I've seen the video. And as DA Mulroy stated, you will too. In a word, it's absolutely appalling.

Let me be clear, what happened here does not at all reflect proper policing. This was wrong. This was criminal. The depth and breadth of the charges announced today speaks to the deliberate and thorough investigation that this case has received and our work is not finished.

We continue to pursue every lead, justice demands it. And our agency exist, so that guilt shall not escape, nor innocence suffer. To that end, I want to publicly thank our agents, our forensic scientists, our support staff, and our entire team around the state. They work diligently to expedite this case.

We've worked as hard as we could and as quickly as we could to provide a thorough, independent, unbiased investigative record to allow DA Mulroy and his team to make the most informed decision they could regarding these charges.

I also want to thank the Memphis Police Department and the city leaders for their cooperation in this case, which I want to stress, is ongoing at this time. Thank you.

MULROY: I'll ...

WILLIAMS: We'll take a few questions.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: DA Mulroy, I was wondering - it's Shimon Prokupecz from CNN ...

WILLIAMS: And let's make sure that one at a time.

MULROY: One and then two, okay.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) investigations ongoing, does that include other officers that were alluded to in (inaudible) addressed last night and also could it also involving other entities and personnel from the (inaudible) ...

MULROY: Nothing we do today or did today precludes the addition of any further charges regarding any of the people that you mentioned.

[15:10:04]

We're still actively reviewing everything. Yes.

PROKUPECZ: Sir, thank you. Shimon Prokupecz from CNN. We have not heard from the Police Chief (inaudible) what occurred in the initial stop and any kind of a timeline of what exactly occurred on that day? So I'm hoping, perhaps, you or the director there can explain to us - just give us as much as possible a timeline of the events. He was stopped, was this a legal stop, why was he stopped and then sort of continue to explain perhaps what happened in the moments after that as much as possible.

MULROY: Right. I don't want to go into too much detail and I suspect that all of your answers along those lines will be forthcoming once you have a chance to view the video for yourself. I know that it's already - a lot of this has already been publicly released, but it - there was an initial traffic stop and we won't comment right now on the presence or absence of legality of the stop, but there was a traffic stop and there was an initial altercation involving several officers and Mr. Nichols, pepper spray was deployed.

The suspect - or not the suspect - Mr. Nichols fled on foot. There was another altercation at a nearby location at which the serious injuries were experienced by Mr. Nichols. After some period of time of waiting around afterwards, he was taken away by an ambulance. Beyond that, I don't really think I - we should go into any further details.

PROKUPECZ: So there was a delay of the - the police late calling an ambulance for (inaudible) ...

MULROY: There was there was an elapsed period of time, but I believe that if you watch the video, you'll be able to make that judgment for yourself. Erica, do you want to --

PROKUPECZ: (Inaudible) is there a reason ...

MULROY: I'm trying to I'm trying to give everyone a chance to ...

PROKUPECZ: I understand, but is there a reason the police chief (inaudible) ...

ELISE PRESTON, CBS NEWS: Elise Preston, CBS News.

MULROY: Mm-hm. PRESTON: Is it known if Tyre Nichols had previously known these former officers?

MULROY: We have no information to disclose about that at this time. I don't know why Chief Davis isn't here. Anything else?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: DA Mulroy, can you just explain is it just body camera videos, is it dash cam video surveillance, what kind of video (inaudible) ...

MULROY: Well, the actual release will be up to the City of Memphis. My understanding is that it'll be a combination of pole cam video, sky cam video and body cam video.

WILLIAMS: We'll take just one more question. One more question.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) that there will be a review of specialized units within the Memphis Police Department. Two questions, first, were these officers member of the organized crime unit and secondary will your office be involved in that investigation?

MULROY: Well, so I've read in the newspaper that Chief Davis has announced a review of those specialized units. I think that's a good idea. I commend Chief Davis for doing that. And I think Chief Davis is committed to trying to do whatever she can to learn lessons from this incident.

I don't contemplate that our office would be involved in that review. I think that's about as --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were they members of the organized crime unit?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scorpions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scorpions.

MULROY: So I think it's already been reported publicly that Scorpion Unit was involved.

Is that it? Okay. I'm being told that's it. Thank you very much.

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

MULROY: Thank you. Thank you.

DON LEMON, ANCHOR, CNN TONIGHT: Okay. You were just listening to that press conference where we got a little bit more information than the District Attorney gave us here.

MULROY: Yes, yes, yes, yes, so all right - so kidnapping is any unlawful confinement of another, which substantially restrained someone's liberty. At a certain point in the sequence of events, it is our view that this - if it was illegal detention to begin with, it certainly became illegal at a certain point and it was an unlawful detention.

The aggravated nature of the charge is because if that kidnapping resulted in bodily injury, that's one grounds for saying that it is aggravated kidnapping. If the persons involved in that unlawful restraint of liberty possessed weapons, that is another ground for saying that the kidnapping.

Do you want me to explain the other charges as well or ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) ...

MULROY: Okay. All right.

So official misconduct is when any public official acting part of their official duties intentionally or knowingly acts in a way exercises authority that is unauthorized by law, right? So that's an affirmative statement, an affirmative act of official misconduct.

At the same time, law enforcement officials who are on duty are also under an affirmative duty to prevent official misconduct and to accurately report information to any medical personnel that show up.

[15:15:00]

And through inaction, when there is a duty imposed by law that can also be a separate ground for charging official misconduct.

Official oppression is a related statute. It's not exactly the same. There is some overlap, but it's not perfect overlap, but it is basically some sort of by an official knowing mistreatment in the course of carrying out their official duties. Aggravated assault, I think is fairly obvious and under the laws of Tennessee. Second degree murder is a knowing killing.

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: All right. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How was the video will be protected (ph)?

LEMON: Okay. We're good? All right.

So there we go, so the District Attorney there describing some of the charges that he told us pre-press, before the press conference about exactly the kidnapping charge or whatever, so just explaining it to the other reporters there in the room.

But this is what we heard, as I bring in my colleague, Sara Sidner, who's with me here and she has been following the story. Let's talk about what he did in the beginning.

First off, it was Erica Williams, who is the Director of Communications where she talked about what was happening here and how they went through the process. The District Attorney then coming on talking about Tyre Nichols, who he was, someone who liked to watch sunsets in the park and who loved his mom and was a skateboarder. And then they said they worked quickly to expedite this case, because of the nature they work swiftly, but they worked fairly.

The TBI, which is the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and others are helping them, they did - I thought it was interesting, they said that they met with the Nichols family, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And that the family was seemed to be, at least, okay ...

LEMON: Pre-charges, yes.

SIDNER: ... okay with what was going forward. They wanted them to know what was going on.

But you know what really sunk in with me that was a moment where you don't hear this all the time. It's when the director of the TBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, says I am grieved, I am shocked, I am sickened by what happened. It's absolutely appalling.

LEMON: It's appalling for (inaudible) David Rausch is his name.

SIDNER: This is a person - David Rausch ...

LEMON: Yes.

SIDNER: ... he saw the video. He said he saw the video. So even he was shocked by what he saw from these five officers in particular and he said that they're working hard and quickly as they can, so guilt shall not escape nor innocence suffer.

LEMON: We are here for truth and justice, he said. As you said appalling, this does not reflect proper policing and he said the depth and breadth of this speaks to what happened and how we are working on this and what they're going to do.

But again, I thought it was interesting that they respected the family. They did not get the first degree murder charges that they wanted, but they did respect the family. And Sara, so we do have a statement from the family that I want to ...

SIDNER: We do.

LEMON: ... I would like to read here if you can get it up on your - yours is quicker than mine and you can get it but here's what it's coming from the office of Ben Crump, the family statement.

He said, the news of today's Memphis officials that these five officers had been criminally accountable for the deadly and brutal actions gives us hope as we continue to push for justice for Tyre. This young man lost his life in a particularly disgusting manner that points to the desperate need for change and reform to ensure this violence stops occurring during low-threat procedures, like in this case, a traffic stop. This tragedy meets the absolute definition of a needless and unnecessary death. Tyre's loved ones lives were forever changed when he was beaten to death and we will keep saying his name until justice is served.

And that is from Attorney Crump and attorneys Crump and Romanucci who are the family attorneys?

SIDNER: Yeah. And I think, you're thinking about a family that is now thinking about burying their child because of what the police said was a traffic stop. I am curious as to what we're actually going to see on the video. Will we see the whole process because of the cameras? And they talked about the cameras.

LEMON: Three different.

SIDNER: Pole camera, sky camera and body camera.

LEMON: Body camera.

SIDNER: That's a lot of different angles of what happened and clearly they've watched each one and come to this decision and a grand jury returned indictments against all five. And the DA made a point that all five will face the same charges and there are quite a few, I think seven in total.

LEMON: Well, let's talk through - Sara, let's bring in now, Joey Jackson, and John Miller with us to discuss this - and our Shimon Prokupecz is standing by. Shimon is not going to join us he's at a different camera, is that correct? Okay.

Okay, so Shimon is still in here, we're kind of flying blind here, but Shimon, you were inside the press conference.

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

LEMON: Can you take us through what - was it like being inside of the press conference and you heard that the District Attorney before the press conference announcing the charges.

[15:20:04]

He went into further detail about why they came up with the exact charges that they did, the weight of those charges and what they meant.

PROKUPECZ: Right. I genuinely do feel that they probably should have taken more questions and probably explained some more of what happened that day. And it seems that they're just completely relying on the release of the video for us to see for ourselves exactly how everything took place and that's fine.

But I do still think that we need an accounting from officials about how everything unfolded that day. Noticeably, I mean, I thought it was noticeable, the fact that the Memphis Police Department Chief was not present here. I asked the DA about that. He didn't seem to know why she wasn't here, but look, the investigators were here. One of the things I think that's very interesting, we did get - I did ask the DA a little bit about what happened that day, and he was willing to give us a little bit. And he said there was this traffic stop. He wouldn't talk about whether it was legal or not.

Then he said there was an encounter there at that traffic stop and that pepper spray was used, other methods were used. And then Tyre Nichols ran and there was a pursuit, and then it was at that second location when they find him and encounter him, when the officers encounter him again, that is where this all takes place where they allege he was beaten.

And what is significant in that moment, the DA indicates is that there was a time that went by it seems before medical care, before EMTs treated him. It seems that the DA indicating that there was some delay in getting him that care.

Now, I don't know exactly how that went and obviously the DA wouldn't talk about it. But I think those few facts are some of the new things we've learned. We also learned that the unit, the unit that stopped, Tyre Nichols is this - what's called a Scorpion Unit.

They are an anti-crime unit. They are some plain clothes. They are in an unmarked car usually and I believe that was in this case. They have stuff that they wear that tells people that they are the police. But this is this anti-crime unit. We've heard about anti-crime units in other cities and their goal is really to fight crime, right? It's to do these car stops, to get guns off the street.

So we'd be curious to hear more about that. So we have some more information, certainly about the actions of the officers that day, and what transpired. And then lastly, I think it was really interesting to listen to the head of the investigation, the man who has been running this investigation, the TBI director, who really made it very clear that in all his years of law enforcement, I think he said some 30 years, that this was wrong, that this was criminal and that justice demanded these charges.

And that I thought was very significant to hear from someone, an individual who certainly is running this investigation, but has been in law enforcement for some 30 years. And I think if you go across the country right now, based on what everybody knows, law enforcement all the - across the country, much like what we saw after George Floyd is pretty upset over what we're about to see tomorrow in this video. And, of course, that's now (inaudible) ...

LEMON: Well, the perfect person, Shimon, to talk about that is ...

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

LEMON: ... yes and I'm glad you mentioned the Scorpion Unit and what you said about what's happening with law enforcement across the country.

SIDNER: Yes.

LEMON: Because I want to - John Miller is the perfect person to talk about that. John Miller and Joey Jackson are joining us now.

John Miller, you hear Shimon and you heard in the press conference, we're talking about the Scorpion Unit, but I want to discuss that but I want to just get your overall impressions of what happened at this press conference, the charges and what led to the beating death of this young man?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, a remarkable press conference. You can tell where everybody is state of logic and emotion is on this. You heard David Rausch, the Director of the TBI as Shimon alluded to, not only said he was appalled, but almost sidestepped into a benediction in the middle of his comments, giving a blessing to the family for their suffering and offering them God's help.

You don't usually see that and the normally somewhat defensive posture of law enforcement agencies investigating other law enforcement agencies. So we take that is another sign of what we see coming.

We did learn new details, which is that there was a traffic stop. They didn't say what exactly the stop was for, although the police said in their initial statement, reckless driving, that there was a confrontation with Tyre Nichols at the traffic stop that resulted in him being pepper sprayed. I believe that's the first time we've heard that. That he then fled on foot.

And what we learned from the police radio tapes that we heard today, Don, was that one of the officers from the Scorpion Unit gets on the air and says, "What is the address this car is registered to?"

[15:25:07]

And it's a couple of blocks this way and a couple of blocks that way, and he - they put the address over the radio. So they shifted their search to see if the suspect was running home. And that's where they encountered Tyre Nichols for the second confrontation, which results in this long protracted beating.

My understanding from police sources is that some of that occurred after he was in handcuffs, which exacerbates the situation. You've got this team. A couple of them have body cameras. A couple of them do not and then there's a pole camera or what they refer to as the sky camera in Memphis that is owned by the police department that records the rest of this from above.

So I believe what authorities are doing today is bringing some justice and buying some time before they released that video.

LEMON: Sara and I both noticed that they said there was a pole camera, a sky camera and then ...

SIDNER: Sky camera and body camera.

LEMON: ... and body camera, so is there a difference - what's the difference between the pole camera and the sky camera? Is that a helicopter? Is that a drone? What is that. MILLER: Same thing. The sky camera is the is the ...

LEMON: Same thing.

MILLER: ... is the name they give to the cameras that they put on poles around Memphis and then the Scorpion Unit. So the Scorpion Unit was started on December 12th 2021 in response to a spate of shootings, and violence, gunfire, carjackings, car thefts in Memphis. They put together 50 police officers, put them in plain clothes with bulletproof vests that said police on them, unmarked cars that did not look like unmarked cars necessarily, a pickup truck, a Dodge Challenger or Charger and sent them out to crime hotspots to engage.

Within their first three weeks, they were lauded for picking up 338 arrests. That's a very aggressive posture in three weeks for 50 police officers, 195 of those were felonies, 95 of those involve weapons and they were being touted as this is an elite crime fighting unit that's part of the organized crime section. And then you have this which raises the question, why were officers who had two and three years of experience the most, six years was the most with - the most time on for those officers, not that experienced when you consider that those might be 10 or 12 or 15 year veterans that go into the specialized units in a unit that was out there in this mission and without a supervisor.

SIDNER: Don, John I have a quick question just for you, because you're talking about the Scorpion Unit, we have talked to someone who came into contact, if you will, with the Scorpion Unit and said that he was scared out of his mind because the cars were unmarked, they all came up a large group.

But something that happened during the dispatch audio sparked my attention. And I'm curious what you think about hearing the dispatch audio where you just mentioned they said, let's check the plates, see where he lives. If you think a car is stolen, if you think someone has done something that's potentially dangerous for the officers, would you not have already run the tags when you pulled up in the first place? Would you not have time to just run the tags? Is it - that's usually what they do when - I've been pulled over before.

LEMON: They didn't in the press conference to the nature of the stop? That's a very good question.

MILLER: So I mean, on the stop, you might put the tag over as you're putting yourself out on the stop and that would run the tag for warrant or warrants, is it a wanted felony or a fugitive without getting into the registered owner. When he comes back on the radio and we're not certain that that actually happened that they ran it in the stop, but when he comes - he specifically asked for what's the address that that car comes back to.

So Sara, to your point, at that point, he's operating on the information that it's not stolen, that it's the driver's car, and they're going to go to that address and start looking for him, which is exactly what they did. They found him 80 yards from home and that's the second confrontation where they ended up beating him to the extent that it causes his death days later.

LEMON: Yes. I want to bring in Joey Jackson now. And if we can put up the names of the officers on the screen, because I think it's important to point out who exactly is being charged here. Justin Smith is one of the officers, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Demetrius Haley and Tadarrius Bean.

Joey, the charges: Second degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct, one charge of official oppression and that is now official that was earlier according to the Shelby County criminal courts - court records, now it's official according to the Shelby County District Attorney. These are very serious charges. What do they carry? What are they facing here?

[15:30:02]

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.