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Two US police officers who were involved in the brutal killing of a Black man have been suspended following mass protests against police brutality in the country.
The officers belonging to Shelby County, Tennessee, who responded to the scene of Tyre Nichols’s deadly arrest, were “relieved of duty,” Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, Jr., said in a statement on Saturday.
“Having watched the videotape for the first time tonight, I have concerns about two deputies who appeared on the scene following the physical confrontation between police and Tyre Nichols,” Bonner said.
Bonner said both deputies will remain off-duty pending the results of an internal investigation into their conduct.
Five Memphis police officers were fired last week over the brutal killing of Nichols as protests erupt across the US.
They were charged on Thursday with second-degree murder and other crimes.
The fired Memphis police officers were sent to jail pending trial; however, four of them were bailed out.
The victim was a 29-year-old Black man, who was pulled over on Jan. 7 on a driving charge. Video footage of the ensuing incident released on Friday showed the officers pepper-spraying, tasing and beating Nichols.
Those officers and others who later arrived on the scene did not appear to offer Nichols any medical aid for the injuries he sustained in the beatings. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition afterward. He died three days later.
The Nichols’ incident has once again raised civil rights concerns regarding police brutality and systemic racism against the Black minority in the United States.
