Who is former Memphis police officer Emmitt Martin III?

Publish date: 2024-04-23

EMMITT MARTIN III was arrested on January 26, 2023.

He is one of five police officers charged with the second-degree murder of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee.

Who is former Memphis police officer Emmitt Martin III?

Martin, who has now been fired, began working for the Memphis police department in March 2018. As Conan Daily notes, he was a member of the Scorpion unit.

According to NBC News, Scorpion is an anti-violence unit that stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods.

The publication also reported that, in addition to second-degree murder, Martin has been charged with official misconduct, aggravated kidnapping, official oppression, and aggravated assault.

Officers Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Desmond Mills Jr, and Justin Smith were also fired and hit with the same charges.

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According to Conan Daily, Martin was brought to Memphis' Shelby County Jail following his arrest and was released after posting a $350,000 bond.

Where did Emmitt Martin III go to school and what did his former classmates say about him?

According to NBC News, 30-year-old Martin attended the private Christian school Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee. A former fellow student called him "one of the coolest brothers ever."

He played on the school's football team as a tight end.

As reported by Conan Daily, he graduated from Bethel in 2015 and received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and corrections.

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NBC News also reported that another former college classmate and current Missouri pastor, Joshua Harper, said he followed Martin on social media and that he often shared posts about his daughter.

After seeing the court documents, Harper reportedly said that that version of Martin "is not the person that I know."

He continued: "I was shocked only for a second because I understood that he was a police officer and I know behind the badge that anything can happen when anyone has power and authority."

What happened to Tyre Nichols?

As reported by CBS News, the Memphis Police Department said in a statement that Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving on January 7, 2023.

The statement discussed how two "confrontations" took place between Nichols and the five involved officers. 29-year-old Nichols was arrested.

However, as CNN This Morning tweeted, in an interview with CNN on January 27, Memphis Police Director Cerelyn "CJ" Davis said that the reckless driving report has not been able to be proven.

Nichols was badly injured after the incident, and police said he was brought to a hospital in critical condition.

On January 10, three days after the arrest, Nichols died.

As CBS News reported, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said that Nichols "succumbed to his injuries." However, details of these injuries were not provided, and an official cause of death has yet to be announced.

The outlet also reported that attorneys for Nichols' family had an "independent autopsy" done, which found that Nichols experienced "extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating."

On January 27, footage of what happened between Nichols and the five officers was released. Nichols can be seen being beaten by the policemen.

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As reported by CBS News, Martin's lawyer, William Massey, said to reporters: "No one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die. No one. No one. Police officers have a difficult and dangerous job. It's probably one of their worst fears that something like this would happen on their watch."

The five former Memphis police officers that were accused of beating Tyre have pleaded not guilty.

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