Recently fired MPD officer accused of violence while working with Shelby County in 2016

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Many questions still remain about the personnel files of the five Memphis police officers who were fired following the results of the internal investigation surrounding the death of Tyre Nichols.

There were also two Memphis Fire EMTs who were relieved of duty pending the results of another internal investigation.

Very little is known about these EMTs, who still remain unknown.

What is known about the five officers who were terminated is none of them had been with the department for more than a few years.

Desmond Miles, the most tenured of the five, served MPD just shy of six years.

Justin Smith and Emmitt Martin served almost 5 years each, and Demetrius Haley and Tadarrius Bean had only two and a half years each.

Action News 5 reached out to the City of Memphis both Friday and Tuesday for personnel files on the former officers to see where else the five have served and if there had been any instances of violence.

All we’ve received, so far, is an automatic response that told us to wait up to five business days.

However, Demetrius Haley, we’ve learned, worked for Shelby County, as a corrections officer in the past.

In 2016, a complaint was filed against Haley and another officer for allegedly punching an inmate repeatedly under suspicion of flushing contraband.

We know that complaint was dropped two years later in 2018, and Haley was hired by Memphis police in August of 2020.

“We take this matter very seriously,” Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said Tuesday.

Mulroy said his office is working with the ongoing TBI, FBI, and U.S. Attorney’s Office investigations to see what potential criminal charges could await the former men in blue.

He said, “We’re trying to expedite all of the process, and the next step would be for any decision made by this office to charge or not to charge, whom to charge, or what charges to bring.”

The D.A. estimates TBI will wrap its investigation quicker than the feds.

The body camera video, we’re told will take at most another two weeks to be released to the public.

Tyre Nichols’ family remains patient in their fight for justice, with only one result in their eyes to achieve it.

“As I’ve said from day one, justice for us is murder one,” said Rodney Well, Nichols’ father, at Monday’s press conference.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee plans to hold a press conference on the progress of their ongoing investigation Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

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