Five officers of the Memphis (Tennesee) Police Department they were fired for " excessive use of force , failure to intervene and failure to help" after arresting an African American , who later died in hospital .
The man, Tire Nichols , 29, was arrested on January 7 and died three days later . The police department has ascertained the responsibility of Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith - also black - following an internal investigation.
Investigations are still underway to understand the official causes of death but the man, stopped for " reckless driving ", complained of " difficulty breathing ". The family and several advocacy groups have called for the release of the videos taken by the policemen's bodycams .
The case refers to the death of 31-year-old African American Keenan Anderson , cousin of the founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, which took place in Los Angeles on January 3rd. The young man had been involved in a car accident but the officers who arrived on the scene "threw him to the ground, stunned him several times with a taser and hit him", the family reported.
(Unioneonline/vf)
