Two Shelby County, Tennessee, deputies who responded to the scene of Tyre Nichols’s arrest have been “relieved of duty” and are under investigation following the release of footage on Friday night of the encounter that resulted in Nichols’s death.
“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,” Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. said in a statement.
Bonner added that both deputies have been relieved of duty pending the results of an internal investigation into their conduct.
Five Memphis police officers were fired last week over Nichols’s death and were charged on Thursday with second-degree murder and other crimes.
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was pulled over by Memphis police on Jan. 7 for alleged reckless driving. Video footage of the ensuing incident released on Friday showed officers pepper-spraying, tasing and beating Nichols.
Those officers and others who later arrived on the scene did not appear to offer Nichols any aid for the injuries he sustained in the beating. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition, and died three days afterward.