Two Deputies Suspended for Role in Tyre Nichols Arrest
‘APPROPRIATE AND JUST’
Two deputies with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office have been suspended for violating the agency’s regulations at the scene of Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, the sheriff said Wednesday. Five Memphis police officers have already been charged with second-degree murder in the case of Nichols, a Black man who was severely injured by cops during an arrest on Jan. 7 and died three days later. Now two deputies who also attended the scene have been given five-day suspensions without pay—a punishment which Sheriff Floyd Bonner called “appropriate and just.” An internal review found that deputies Jeremy Watkins and Johntavious Bowers broke rules by failing to keep their body cameras turned on while at the scene and also failed to notify their dispatch or supervisor about their movements, among other violations. The sheriff’s office said it did not currently believe charges would result from the review.