Mr. Memphis, attorney discusses the meeting with the SCORPION unit

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Police Department’s SCORPION unit was established in 2021 to stop street crimes – drug crimes, stolen guns and cars and more.

But less than two years later, it no longer exists after at least seven police officers were placed on the network in the beating of Tire Nichols.

Since the death of the 29-year-old, we have heard many people from the village say they met some of the SCORPION group, some of whom have been fired and charged in the death. of Nichols.

On January 4, Robert Spence said his client, Monterrious Harris, was approached by eight Memphis police officers, including Detectives Justin Smith, Desmond Mills Jr., Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, and Preston Hemphill, both members of the SCORPION Unit.

These are the five men who were fired and one is currently on leave pending an internal investigation within the MPD. regarding the death of Nichols.

“It was scary, it was really scary, it was even scarier when I found out later that the same people who beat me up turned around and killed this guy,” Harris said. .

According to the incident report, police were investigating at the Twin Oaks Apartment after Harris said he was in a vehicle that smelled of marijuana and tried to run from police.

They said they observed Harris throw away a bag with a “leafy object” in it.

You can hear this on an audio recording, provided by Harris’ attorney, where you can hear someone yelling, “What did you throw? What did you throw?”

The report says that the police found several guns and a scale in the car.

Spence says his partner’s story is wrong.

“Then they made false accusations against him, in order to hide what they did. “It’s interesting when you read the statement of claim, it doesn’t say that they assaulted him, they beat him, he should go to the hospital,” he said.

Spence said that although it was not mentioned in the declaration, Harris was accepted in Regional One.

“Lucky for him, he didn’t have broken bones, many bruises, and lacerations, he was just beaten.”

Spence said that they are now making a lawsuit against all the officers involved for creating what he called the “vigilante squad”: Disgust. Really just hate. Like we can do better than that. We can be a better city than that, we can be a better police force than that.

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