i m jessica dean in washington, d.c. in today for fredicka whitfield. a major move by the memphis police department. less than 24 hours after the release of the video showing the brutal building of tyre nichols, the s.c.o.r.p.i.o.n. unit will be disbanded. this move coming after nichols family and protesters around the country demanded the unit be dissolved. cnn s isabelle rosales has more on these developments. what are you learning? reporter: the police chief cerelyn davis, in a statement she put out, talking about how it was disbanded, she touted the quality work of this unit. clearly there s been tensions between the community and this s.c.o.r.p.i.o.n. unit. what happened here is the police chief, she met with members that were not involved in the beating of tyre nichols and determined it was in the best interest of the community to disband. this goes to the direct wis activists and the family attorney as well. here is what we know about the s.c.o.r.p.i.o.n. unit. this
you are live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. today the attorney for the family of tyre nichols is calling the video of the 29-year-old being beaten by officers a watershed moment, one that the attorney hopes will lead to federal police legislation reform. late yesterday, we learned that the memphis police department had shut down the controversial scorpion unit that the officers charged in this killing belonged to. that news coming less than 24 hours after graphic video of tyre nichols being beaten and tased by officers was released to the public. again, i want to warn our viewers, what you re about to watch is disturbing. ah! mom! mother mom! give me your fucking hands, man! give me your fucking hands! give me your hands! give me your hands! hey! cnn s isabel rosales joins me now. isobel, what led to the chief deciding to do this step of deactivating the unit? and what more do we know about what s happening with this case? hey, jim. so
bumping and heard speculating whether he was on drugs while tyre nichols is slumped over and bleeding. that high. sit up, bro. sit up, man. reporter: at 8:41 p.m., two medical personnel arrive on the scene. they have been placed on leave as their response to the incident is investigated. it isn t until 9:02 p.m., 21 minutes later, that an ambulance finally pulls into view of the camera, rushing tyre nichols to the hospital where three days later he dies. boris sanchez, cnn, memphis. boris, thank you. across the country people are referring tyre nichols, not just for how he died, but also for how he lived.
be hearing more of these kind of cases emerge. and i mean, as soon as this story broke, we had another guy who a few days before tyre nichols also was pulled over by this unit and said the officers are screaming at him and put guns in his face over a traffic offense. but again, this is a repeating story. about ten years ago, there was one of these units in chicago, one of these allegedly sort of elite police units and it was revealed after a number of scandals, including brutality, drug dealing, burglaries, robberies, that father of the officers on that unit had more than 50 citizen complaints against them, which were among the most in the 10,000-member department. so, again wing when you take, you know, these units sort of select for the wrong type of police officer, and then you take these officers and give them less discretion, less oversight, and tell them that, you know, they re allowed to sort of skirt the rules or they re allowed to go beyond what normal police officers do whe
it was created by the chief back in 2021, november 2021, to really crack down on a surge of crime and to target violent areas in memphis, with a focus on things like homicides, robberies, assaults, and otherfulness. now, nichols attorneys the family s attorney says they would go around in unmarked cars and were sometimes unnecessarily aggressive, especially to people of color. we did hear from attorney benjamin crump this morning. he spoke with cnn and he did, however, tout the quick firing and charging of these involved police officers, saying that this is really a blueprint going forward, not just here in memphis, but beyond, that reform needs to happen on a national scale. take a listen. this video illustrates that it s this culture that says, it doesn t matter the police officers are black, hispanic, or white that it is somehow allowed