EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Several Rhode Island officials spoke out Saturday following the release of video that showed five Memphis police officers beating Tyre Nichols to death during a traffic stop.
“The use of force beyond any training any rules any standards you just don’t do what they did,” said 12 News Law Enforcement Analyst, Steven O’Donnell. “You can’t even compare this to anything else I’ve seen in 40 years,” he continued.
The five police officers shown in the video were a part of the Memphis Police Department’s, “SCORPION Unit,” which was created in 2021 to help combat rising crime in the city. O’Donnell called their actions in the video egregious and barbaric.
“From my perspective again brutality, disgusting, gross but that doesn’t vilify every other police officer in the country. Rest assured that every policeman and policewoman in America pay attention, not just to this but they pay attention to the internet, they pay attention to what’s happening in other cities and towns,” said O’Donnell.
The five Memphis police officers were indicted on numerous charges this week including murder. O’Donnell said the quick response by the Memphis District Attorney seemed unusual to him since there is typically a long process that follows these types of cases.
“It’s not unusual because the police aren’t accountable, its unusual because of the process. In the system, it’s very difficult to move forward on these types of matters without getting all the facts together,” said O’Donnell.
Governor Dan McKee also commented on the incident and said there is no excuse for the behavior of those five police officers.
“We don’t ever want to see something like that in Rhode Island,” said McKee. “I expect that justice will be served.”
