Memphis police officer texted picture of Tyre Nichols following beating

A Memphis police officer has admitted to using his personal cellphone to send out a picture of Tyre Nichols after he was brutally beaten and arrested on Jan. 7, according to The New York Times.

Demetrius Haley admitted to sending a photograph of Nichols, bleeding and half-conscious, to at least five people, including two fellow officers, a civilian employee of the department and a female acquaintance, according to documents sent to the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission and obtained by the Times.

According to the paper, Memphis Chief of Police Cerelyn Davis sent a decertification request to the commission in regard to the five Black officers involved in the beating.

The Commission did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

Those five officers — Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — have been fired and indicted on one charge of second-degree murder, one charge of aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression.

Video footage of the beating released last month shows Haley approaching Nichols as he is leaning against a car and shining a flashlight at him before pointing his phone in Nichols’s direction. 

Haley then walks away for a brief moment and looks at his phone before returning to where Nichols is still propped against the car and appearing to aim his phone in Nichols’s direction yet again.

The Memphis Police Department prohibits officers from using personal cellphones while performing patrol duties, according to the New York Times’s report.

MPD’s Public Information Office told The Hill that as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, they cannot confirm any additional information at this time.