Tyre Nichols’ Family Files Civil Lawsuit Against City of Memphis, Police Dept., and Scorpion Unit Officers

The estate of Tyre Nichols has filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Memphis, the city’s police department, and the officers in the SCORPION Unit whose encounter with Nichols ultimately resulted in his death days later.

The lawsuit, filed in a Tennessee federal court Wednesday on behalf of Nichols’ mother RowVaughn Wells, comes just three months after the death of Nichols, a 29-year-older skateboarder and father who died of injuries he sustained following a Jan. 7 traffic stop. Five since-fired Memphis police officers face charges including second-degree murder in Nichols’ death.

“Rather than ‘restore peace’ in Memphis neighborhoods, the SCORPION Unit brought terror,” the lawsuit states. “In reality, it was an officially authorized gang of inexperienced, untrained, hyper-aggressive police officers turned loose on the Memphis community without any oversight. They were instructed to strike without warning and, many times, without any valid constitutional basis.”

“Far from being the result of the actions of five rogue police officers, the events of January 7, 2023 were the culmination of a Department-sanctioned rampage by the unqualified, untrained, and unsupervised SCORPION Unit carrying out an unconstitutional mandate without any fear of retribution or consequence because of an acquiescence and acceptance of tolerated unconstitutional conduct that had been fostered since the SCORPION Unit’s inception,” Nichols family attorney Antonio M. Romanucci said in a statement Wednesday. 

“Tyre Nichols should never have been stopped that day, and under no circumstances should he have been brutally beaten as an unarmed civilian who was subdued and no threat to officers. This type of policing culture is a cancer in our communities and must be seen for what it is — and stopped completely across the country.”

In addition to suing over the brutal beating of her son, Wells is also suing the defendants, alleging “intentional, reckless and negligent infliction of emotional distress and fraudulent misrepresentation,” claiming that Memphis Police Department Lieutenant DeWayne Smith lied to her during their initial conversation. 

In that conversation, the lawsuit claims, Smith told Wells that “Tyre was driving under the influence with no evidence or support; Tyre was intoxicated with no evidence or support: lying about the reasons why Tyre was being arrested; withholding reasons why Tyre was being arrested; lying about Tyre’s medical condition; failing to say Tyre was around the corner from her home on the verge of dying; and/or withholding Tyre’s medical condition from his mother.”

Throughout the lawsuit, Nichols’ death is compared to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. “How does this horrific and unconstitutional treatment of Black men and women by law enforcement continue to happen,” the estate’s attorney Ben Crump added in a statement Wednesday. 

“Tyre’s condition in the hospital can be likened to that of Emmitt Till, who was also beaten unrecognizable by a lynch mob. But, Tyre’s lynch mob was dressed in department sweatshirts and vests, sanctioned by the entities that supplied them. Please, Memphis. Please, America, we must hold these people accountable and create meaningful change once and for all. We can not let another seventy years go by.”