Tyre Nichols updates: Five former officers charged over Tyre Nichols' death
The five officers involved in Tyre Nichols' death were reportedly members of the Memphis Police Department's 'Scorpion' unit - a specialised group within the force that has already courted controversy.
Scorpion - which stands for "Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods" is a 50-person unit with the stated mission of bringing down crime levels in particular areas, with a focus on high-impact crimes such as car thefts and gang-related offences.
In the wake of Nichols' death, local man Cornell McKinney told WREG that he had a tense encounter with the unit on 3 January, just days before the incident took place.
McKinney alleges that the officers - who were travelling in unmarked vehicles - threatened to "blow his head off", pointed a weapon at his head and accused him of carrying drugs. He complained to the Memphis Police Department after the incident but says he has not heard back.
A lawyer for Nichols' family, Antonio Romanucci, has accused the unit of misconduct in the latest incident.
“They were in unmarked cars, why are they conducting traffic stops?” he told WREG. “This is a pretextual traffic stop, which, let’s call it what it is, it’s a racist traffic stop."
