Three EMTs who responded to the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols were fired Monday after an internal investigation, the Memphis Fire Department said.
Robert Long, JaMichael Sandridge and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were found to have violated department policies in their patient response to Nichols on January 7, the fire department said in a statement.
Their actions or inactions on the scene that night do not meet the expectations of the Memphis Fire Department and are not reflective of the outstanding service that the men and women of the Memphis Fire Department provide daily in our community, it said.
The fire department responded to the scene of Nichols' traffic stop at 8: 31 p.m. after police called because a person was pepper sprayed, according to the fire department. Long, Sandridge and Whitaker were sent to a second location and arrived at a police station 10 minutes after Nichols leaning against a police vehicle.
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 pepper sprayed and information they were told on the scene, but did not conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols, the fire department said.
Voicemails left at the phone numbers listed for Long and Whitaker were not immediately returned Monday evening. Video of the traffic stop shows officers using force against him multiple times, including pepper spray. The officers also appeared to punch Nichols, hit him with a baton and seem to kick him in the face while he was in custody, according to the videos released Friday.
Nichols was taken to the hospital in critical condition, where he died three days later. A cause of death has not been released.
Police initially said Nichols was pulled over in a reckless driving stop, but police chief Cerelyn C.J. was pulled over. Davis said that her office hasn't found any proof to prove the claim. Officers ordered Nichols on the ground, giving him conflicting commands, before he ran away.
According to the videos, officers pursued Nichols, using a stun gun on him as he fled. He was pepper-sprayed before he was beaten an estimated 80 yards from his mother's home. He died three days later.
A forensic pathologist conducted for the Nichols family show that he was severely beaten before he died, the family s attorneys have said. The medical examiner's office in Shelby County hasn't 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 department policy about the use of force. A sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, was relieved of duty, police said Monday.
Two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one count of official harassment and one count of aggravated assault were all charged with second-degree murder, Martin, Mills and Smith, along with a count of aggravated assault, prosecutors announced last week.
The three fire employees jobs were not included in the previous version of this article. They were EMTs, not paramedics.