some of what we are about to show you is graphic. body cam video showing officer ace preaching with hitter firearms, yanking nichols out of his car. he breaks free from the officers and runs towards his parents home. a struggle ensues after a chase. police then using pepper spray, batons, their fists, their feet to beatnik cols. at one point, he cries out for his mother. mom! mom! mom! video from a pole camera showing the full extent. you see nichols there, who is unarmed, kicked in the face, struck at least nine times in a few minutes. at that point, bloodied and propped up onto a squad car. officers are then seen just standing around, not providing nichols with any potentially lifesaving aid. five former memphis police officers now facing several charges including second-degree murder and kidnapping. and after the release of this video, two shelby county deputies who were also there on the scene have now been put on leave pending an investigation into their conduct.
of investigation, david roush as well as assistant director josh melton. i m also joined by other members of my staff including earnest brooks, ray lapone and also most relevant for today the trial team and the tyree nichols case, including paul hagerman and tanisha johnson. we re today because of a tragedy that wounds one family deeply and also hurts us all. the death of tyree nichols. we understand and acknowledge the grief of the friends and family of tyree are experiencing right now and the great concern throughout memphis and shelby county about this case. we met several times this week with the family of tyree nichols. they described an almost perfect son, a cheerful and happy person that enjoyed skateboarding and sunsets over shelby farms park. we re grateful to the family of tyree nichols for their patience as we expedited the charges in this case and the understanding on the part of the family that premature release of the video could compromise both. and we did work
would kill his family. this is a long story, my son was in a boat wreck months back. he has been getting threats. most of it has been benign stuff. we didn t take serious. he s been getting like punched. i know that that is what it is. reporter: a key moment in the body cam footage comes when sergeant green asks when he last saw his family. listen closely to his answer. when was the last time you were here with them or talked to them or anything like that? um it was earlier tonight. i don t know the exact time. okay. but i left, i was gone probably an hour and a half from my mom s and i saw them about 45 minutes before that. reporter: alex says he wasn t home at the time of the murders and hadn t seen his family in hours. but remember, at trial the state
execute that search warrant until september, two months later. the defense will try and say that this means there could have been evidence pointing to other alternative theories but police never followed up on it. by the time they did, that evidence was gone. so, that s a huge component of what we re going to see this upcoming week. and one of the key points prosecutors trying to make this week was that murdaugh wasn t crying in the aftermath of his son and wife s deaths. here s some of that 911 audio that was played in the trial. it s followed by the first officer to arrive on the scene s testimony, so we ll listen to that. this is a long story. my son was in a boat wreck a few months back. he s been getting threats. most of it benign stuff, we didn t take serious. he s been getting punched. i know that s what it is. okay. his immediate reaction was to start telling me about an incident that happened with his
most of it has been benign stuff. we didn t take serious. he s been getting like punched. i know that s what it is. martha: i know that s what it is, he says. prosecutors say that that is not what it is. they argue that murdaugh killed his wife and son to distract from his own spiralling financial situation. attorney brian claypool has a lot to say about this. he s standing by. first to jonathan serrie who is covering this trial for us from atlanta. hi, jonathan. hi, martha. you heard him reference that boat accident in that recording. the 2019 accident involving his son, paul murdaugh at the time that he was underage and allegedly intoxicated when he crashed a boat, killing a 19-year-old passenger. her family, the passenger s family sawed the murdaugh family and legal experts say that opened alec murdaugh, a