Memphis releases new footage from Night of Tire Nichols' fatal assault

Attorneys for the four officers who have pleaded not guilty — Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Tadarrius Bean — did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Blake Ballin, an attorney for Desmond Mills Jr., who pleaded guilty to the charges in November, declined to comment.

The footage also includes conversations between the officers in which they repeatedly claim that Mr. Nichols was drunk or on drugs, say his strength made it difficult to overpower him and that he reached for an officer's gun. The videos do not show Mr. Nichols reaching for a gun, but do show him trying to comply with the officers' rapid-fire demands.

The officers belonged to the department's Scorpion street crime unit, which has since been disbanded after developing a reputation for intimidating and aggressive behavior. In one clip, taken from a patrol car camera, officers who arrived on the scene but did not appear to be involved in the violence can be heard discussing their concerns about the unit's behavior, with one officer confiding: “I feeling bad about this.”

The footage released Tuesday also shows an officer, Preston Hemphill, speaking directly to Mr. Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, and his stepfather, telling them how Mr. Nichols “started fighting with us” after a traffic stop at a red light. (Mr. Hemphill, who is white, was fired from the department for his role in the encounter, but he was not charged.)

Following Ms Wells' protests that her son would not have fought back, Mr Hemphill said Mr Nichols “also fought hard” and that “given the way he fought, he must have been on something.”

Police documents also showed that the men had misled police officials about what had happened. An autopsy report found that Mr. Nichols had a blood alcohol level of 0.049 percent, well below the legal limit for driving in Tennessee.

Kassie Bracken, Abby Goodnough, Adeel Hassan, Sean Plambeck And Rik Rojas reporting contributed.