Memphis authorities will release body camera footage Friday night of police beating Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died three days after his Jan. 7 arrest for an alleged traffic violation. The city’s police chief . Within three weeks of the unit’s inception, it made 338 arrests, including for 125 felony offenses, and recovered 95 weapons.
On Thursday night, Crump and Romanucci penned a letter comparing SCORPION to the widely criticized Gun Trace Task Force in Baltimore and a similar roving unit in Chicago, where officers were involved in robberies and home invasions. They demanded that the city disband the unit.
In SCORPION’s case, officers operated in unmarked cars targeting specific areas, often predominantly Black neighborhoods.
Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian via Associated Press
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The unit appeared to be targeting residents during traffic stops as recently as two months before Nichols’ arrest, according to court documents found by HuffPost.
In some cases, the unit loaded up charges that were later dropped. Back in October, all five officers in Nichols’ case were present when officers stopped a man named Jamarian Johnson due to a “strong odor” of marijuana coming from his car.
The officers said they discovered marijuana paraphernalia and a handgun in the vehicle and later accused Johnson of using the vehicle to transport drugs. Police charged Johnson with evading arrest; possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver; and unlawful possession of a weapon.
But on Jan 19, prosecutors dropped the case against Johnson. HuffPost reached out to MPD about the arrest but did not get a response.
Another man, Cornell McKinney, told local station WREG that the same unit stopped him on Jan. 3, three days before Nichols was pulled over.
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Mckinney said they approached him in unmarked cars and didn’t initially say what the stop was for, though they later accused him of carrying drugs. He said their vests said “MPD SCORPION UNIT” on the back.
When McKinney asked for a lawyer, he said that one officer told him, “This ain’t court. This ain’t the time for lawyers.” The police eventually let McKinney leave the scene without any charges, he said.
