Three EMTs who responded to the fatal beating of Tire Nichols were fired Monday after an internal investigation, the Memphis Fire Department said Monday.
Robert Long, JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were found to have violated multiple department policies and protocols in their patient response to Nichols on Jan. 7, the fire department said in a statement.
«Your actions or inactions on the scene that night do not meet the expectations of the Memphis Fire Department and do not reflect the excellent service that the men and women of the Memphis Fire Department provide daily to our community,» he said.
The fire department was dispatched to the scene of the Nichols traffic stop at 8:31 p.m. after police called a «pepper-sprayed person,» the fire department said. Long, Sandridge, and Whitaker were directed to a second location and arrived to find Nichols leaning against a police vehicle at 8:41 p.m., 10 minutes after the initial call.
Long and Sandridge responded to Nichols, while Whitaker and a driver remained in the vehicle, the fire department said.
«Our investigation has concluded that the two EMTs responded based on the initial nature of the call (person being pepper sprayed) and the information they received at the scene and failed to properly assess Mr. Nichols’ patient.» the fire department said.
An ambulance was called after his initial interaction with Nichols, the department said, and an emergency unit was dispatched at 8:46 p.m. The department said the unit arrived at the scene at 8:55 p.m., initiated care, and took Nichols to a hospital. at 9:08 p.m., some 27 minutes after Long, Sandridge, and Whitaker moved into second place.
Voicemails left at phone numbers listed for Long and Whitaker were not immediately returned Monday night. Sandridge did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
Video from the traffic stop showed officers using force against him multiple times, including using pepper spray. The officers also appeared to hit Nichols, hit him with a baton and apparently kick him in the face while he was in custody, videos released Friday show.
Nichols was taken in critical condition to the hospital, where he died three days later. A cause of death has not been released.
Police initially said Nichols was pulled over for a reckless driving stop, but Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said her office found no evidence to substantiate the claim. The officers ordered Nichols to the ground, giving him conflicting orders, before he made off.
The officers chased Nichols and shot him with a stun gun as he fled, according to the videos. They pepper-sprayed him repeatedly before beating him about 80 meters from his mother’s house. He died three days later.
Preliminary findings in an autopsy conducted for the Nichols family by a forensic pathologist show that he was severely beaten before he died, attorneys for the family said. The Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office has not released an official cause of death.
Five officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith, were fired Jan. 20 after an administrative investigation found they had violated the department’s use-of-force policy. Two more officers, Preston Hemphill and an unidentified seventh officer, have been «relieved of duty,» police said Monday.
Bean, Haley, Martin, Mills and Smith were charged with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of official oppression and one count of aggravated assault, prosecutors announced last week. . Attorneys for Mills and Martin said their clients plan to plead not guilty. It was not clear if the others have retained legal representation.
CORRECTION (January 30, 2023 8:08 PM ET): An earlier version of this article misrepresented the jobs of the three fire employees. They were EMTs, not paramedics.