Former officer testifies Tyre Nichols 'wasn't a threat' when he was snatched from car during stop

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tyre Nichols posed no threat to police when he was snatched out of his car during a traffic stop that preceded a fatal beating by five Memphis officers, according to testimony Monday by a former officer who has pleaded guilty in the case, which led to national protests and sparked renewed calls for police reform.

Emmitt Martin III took the stand in the federal trial of former colleagues Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith. The three officers have pleaded not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering.

The four men, along with fellow officer Desmond Mills Jr., were fired after the January 2023 death of Nichols. The beating was caught on police video, which was released to the public. The officers were later indicted by a federal grand jury. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals and are testifying against the other officers.

For the first time in the trial, jurors heard from one of the officers who beat Nichols. Martin said he and his former colleagues — members of the Scorpion Unit, a Memphis police team that looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent criminals — would justify the force they used against a person by exaggerating the person's actions against them. The unit was disbanded shortly after Nichols’ death.

Martin said he saw Nichols speed up to beat a red light and then change lanes without signaling, leading Martin to follow Nichols with his police car lights on. Haley eventually stopped Nichols' Nissan, pulled out his gun and snatched Nichols from his vehicle without telling Nichols why he was stopped.

Martin also had his gun out, and joined Haley in trying to restrain Nichols while yelling various conflicting commands, such as telling Nichols to give the officers his hands, turn on his stomach and put his hands behind his back.

Meanwhile, Nichols was passively resisting the officers in a non-aggressive manner — by pulling his hands away from the officers, who were trying to handcuff him without telling him why, Martin said.

“He wasn't a threat,” Martin said.

Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop, but he was able to run away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, caught up with Nichols and punched him, kicked him, and hit him with a police baton just steps from his home, as he called out for his mother.

Video also shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggles with his injuries. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.

During her opening statements, prosecutor Elizabeth Rogers told jurors that the attack was punishment because Nichols tried to run away — known as a “run tax” in police slang.

Martin said that if someone runs from his team, “you get your ass beat.” Martin also added that he and his team would justify using force against a person “if we exaggerate what they did” during the arrest. The officers are accused with lying on forms in which they must describe the force they used against a person.

Martin also acknowledged that Memphis officers are not trained to punch or kick people to handcuffed them, and that officers have a duty to intervene if other officers use unnecessary, unreasonable force. Those policy violations could result in the officers being fired and face criminal charges, Martin said.

Earlier Monday, defense attorneys tried to poke holes in officer training practices and policies while questioning Lt. Larnce Wright, who trained all five officers and testified about use of force, handcuffing and other techniques.

Wright testified about the distinction between active and passive resistance, saying passive resistance is when a person won’t give officers their hands to be handcuffed by pulling away, while active resistance is fighting officers with punches and kicks.

Martin Zummach, Smith’s lawyer, asked Wright where in the police department’s lengthy training manual the definition of active or passive resistance is listed. Wright acknowledged that those definitions are not written down in the manual.

Wright also testified that handcuffs can be used as a deadly weapon. Officers struggled to handcuff Nichols, and Zummach noted that Smith managed to get one handcuff on Nichols and was trying to get another on him.

Zummach posed a question to Wright: If a suspect pulls away one handcuffed hand from an officer, can it be used as a deadly weapon, and could lethal force be used? Wright said it could.

“Until a suspect is handcuffed, no one is safe. Do you agree with that?” Zummach asked. Wright said, “Yes.”

Kevin Whitmore, Bean’s lawyer, asked Wright if officers are trained to “stay in the fight” until they have handcuffed and arrested someone. Wright said they are.

“It’s a dirty job,” Wright said.

Wright began testifying Thursday, when he said the officers should have used armbars, wrist locks and other soft hands tactics to restrain Nichols.

An autopsy report shows Nichols — the father of a boy who is now 7 — died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and other areas.

The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty, although Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.

Former Memphis police officer Justin Smith arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Former Memphis police officer Demetrius Haley arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Former Memphis police officer Tadarrius Bean arrives at the federal courthouse for the second day of jury selection for the trial in the Tyre Nichols case Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Former officer testifies Tyre Nichols 'wasn't a threat' when he was snatched from car during stop

FILE - The screen at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans honors Tyre Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards, Jan. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)

Former officer testifies Tyre Nichols 'wasn't a threat' when he was snatched from car during stop

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is pulling back from its records on Tuesday as the price of crude oil tumbles and technology stocks falter.

The S&P 500 was down 0.9% in afternoon trading, a day after setting an all-time high for the 46th time this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 317 points, or 0.7%, with less than an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.3% lower.

Exxon Mobil dropped 2.5%, and energy stocks fell to some of Wall Street's sharpest losses after oil prices tumbled roughly 4%. A barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, has fallen back below $75 from more than $80 last week.

Crude prices have been weakening as China’s flagging economic growth raises concerns about demand for oil. At the same time, worries have receded about Israel possibly attacking Iranian oil facilities as part of its retaliation against Iran’s missile attack early this month. Iran is a major producer of crude, and a strike could upend its exports to China and elsewhere.

Nvidia was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500 and fell 5.1%. It's a cooldown for the chip company, whose stock is still up 164.5% for the year so far on euphoria about the profits created by the boom around artificial-intelligence technology.

Stocks for companies across the chip industry fell after Dutch supplier ASML reported its latest quarterly results. CEO Christophe Fouquet said AI continues to offer strong upside potential, but “other market segments are taking longer to recover,” and ASML's stock trading in the United States fell fell 17.7%.

Also dragging on the U.S. stock market was UnitedHealth Group. The insurer fell 7.8% despite reporting better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It lowered the top end of its forecasted range for profit over the full year.

Helping to keep the S&P 500 and Dow close to their records set on Monday were gains for several financial companies following better-than-expected profit reports for the summer.

Bank of America rose 1.5%, and CEO Brian Moynihan said his company benefited from higher average loans and fees for investment banking and asset management. Charles Schwab jumped 6.7% after likewise delivering better results than expected. More customers opened brokerage accounts at the company, helping to bring its total client assets to a record $9.92 trillion.

Walgreens Boots Alliance was another winner, up 13.2%, after topping analysts’ forecasts. The drugstore chain also said it will close about 1,200 locations over the next three years as it tries to turn around its struggling U.S. business.

Chipmaker Wolfspeed jumped 19.2% to trim its loss for the year to 68.8% after the Biden-Harris administration announced Tuesday that it plans to provide up to $750 million in direct funding to the company. The money will support its new silicon carbide factory in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced computer chips.

In the bond market, trading of Treasurys resumed after a holiday on Monday, and yields sank following a weaker-than-expected report on manufacturing in New York state.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.03% from 4.10% late Friday. Manufacturing has been one of the areas of the U.S. economy hurt most by high interest rates caused by the Federal Reserve in its efforts to slow the economy enough to stamp out high inflation.

Now, though, the Fed has begun cutting interest rates as it’s widened its focus to include keeping the economy humming instead of just fighting high inflation. And it looks set to continue cutting rates through next year, easing the brakes further off the economy.

Recent reports showing the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected have also raised optimism that the Fed can pull off a perfect landing where it gets inflation down to 2% without causing a recession that many had thought would be necessary.

Because of expectations for continued growth for the U.S. economy, as well as the boost that lower rates can give to corporate profits and to prices for stocks, strategists at UBS raised their forecast for how high the S&P 500 could go this year and next.

Led by Jonathan Golub, they're calling for the S&P 500 to rise to 5,850 by the end of the year, up from their prior forecast of 5,600.

In stock markets abroad, Chinese stocks fell sharply as doubts continue about whether the government will offer enough fiscal stimulus to prop up the world’s second-largest economy.

Stocks in Shanghai fell 2.5%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 3.7%.

Indexes were mixed elsewhere in Asia and in Europe.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

The Charging Bull statue in New York's Financial District is shown on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

FILE - People pass the entrance for the Wall Street subway station on Sept. 2, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE -A passerby moves past an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index and stock prices outside a securities building Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)