A former Memphis police officer who has pleaded guilty to violating Tyre Nichols鈥檚 civil rights testified in tears Tuesday, saying he left Nichols鈥檚 young son fatherless, that he was sorry and that he wishes he had stopped the punches.
Desmond Mills took the stand in the trial of three former colleagues, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who are charged in the January 2023 beating. As video of the pummelling played, Mills testified in the most emotional moment for a former officer so far in the trial, now in its third week. The judge paused and gave him a water bottle and a prosecutor gave Mills a moment to compose himself.
鈥淚 made his child fatherless,鈥 said Mills, who used a baton to strike Nichols. 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry. I鈥檓 sorry. I know sorry can鈥檛 bring him back.鈥
Mills said it hurt to know he was a part of that beating.
鈥淚t hurt inside so much,鈥 he said.
The officers used pepper spray and a Taser on Nichols, who was Black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then punched, kicked and hit him about a block from his home.
Mills described video of the officers talking and laughing near the injured Nichols. Mills acknowledged he and fellow officers didn't request emergency services and didn't tell their supervisor they had punched, kicked and hit Nichols with a baton.
鈥淚t was ugly,鈥 he said.
Mills said he removed his body camera after the beating when Martin motioned toward him to do so because he wanted to tell Mills something.
Mills testified earlier Tuesday that he was looking to leave his crime suppression unit. He said he didn鈥檛 like the structure or 鈥済o-go-go鈥 approach of the Scorpion Unit, whose success was determined by arrest numbers and other statistics.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 like the hostility鈥 team members showed citizens, Mills said. He noted that Haley and Emmitt Martin were known as the Smash Bros. for being overly aggressive and that Haley did not always turn on his body camera. Martin took a plea deal and already testified in the trial.
Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows Nichols 鈥 the father of a boy who is now seven 鈥 died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Mills, who was teamed up with Bean when Bean joined the Scorpion Unit in 2022, said Bean was inexperienced. He said he had to teach Bean how to differentiate between the types of drugs found at crime scenes.
Jurors again watched Mills鈥檚 body camera, which shows Nichols calling for his mother and Bean and Smith punching him without trying to handcuff him, Mills said.
Defence attorneys have questioned whether Martin and Justin Smith should have been working on the streets that day. Martin has testified he was angry after an on-the-job injury and had seen a counsellor before returning to the Scorpion team four days before the Nichols beating.
Justin Smith hurt his knee the day before the beating and was on desk duty before his supervisor, Lt. Dewayne Smith, asked him to go out and join his team the night it happened, Dewayne Smith testified.
Mills testified that Justin Smith had checked on Martin and he was not doing well after a car hit him on the job.
鈥淢entally, something was wrong鈥 with Martin, Mills said.
Mills said he pepper sprayed Nichols because he thought it would help to get Nichols handcuffed. He said he did not try to help handcuff Nichols because 鈥淚 was just focused on using the pepper spray.鈥
Mills noted he weighed 305-310 pounds (about 140 kilograms) and Martin weighed about 270-280 (about 125 kilograms). Nichols was the 鈥渟mallest person out there,鈥 Mills said.
The Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders, was disbanded after Nichols鈥檚 death.
Haley, Bean and Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and obstructing justice through witness tampering.
The Associated Press analyzed what the officers claimed happened on the night of the beating and what video shows. The AP sifted through hundreds of pages of evidence and hours of video from the scene, including officer body cameras.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. 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, Tenn.
MPs debated the first non-confidence motion of the fall House of Commons sitting today, seeing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre push once again for a snap election. But with votes secured to keep them afloat, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals were quick to turn the discussion into a referendum on the Conservative alternative.
An image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in February 2023 has been obtained by CTVNews.ca.
We've all had neighbours we didn't like, but two people from Sault Ste. Marie have been awarded more than half a million dollars for the 'extreme' behaviour of the people who lived next to them.
An 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in a caught-on-video incident in Mississauga earlier this month is now facing auto theft charges in Toronto.
Steven Guilbeault accused Pierre Poilievre of catering to his 'rich friends' in the oil and gas sector by pushing a policy to scrap carbon pricing.
Canada鈥檚 budget watchdog says the federal government may not meet its fiscal anchors if it acquiesces to the Bloc Quebecois' demand to expand seniors benefits in exchange for keeping the minority Liberals in power.
Donald Trump flubbed the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, while going off script during a speech on Tuesday otherwise focused on economic policy, slamming U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for lying about 'Charlottestown.'
Premier Danielle Smith says she plans to reinforce the right to decide whether to receive a vaccination or other medical procedure in changes to the Alberta Bill of Rights.
Police in Spain have arrested five people accused of scamming two women out of 325,000 euros (US$362,000) by pretending to be Hollywood star Brad Pitt online.
The calls are growing louder for city council to tighten the rules governing short-term accommodations, including those advertised on websites like Airbnb and Vrbo, after students arrived by the busload at a rented house in the Masonville neighbourhood.
A Calgary man is facing child pornography charges after an investigation uncovered years of messages exchanged with an alleged felon.
We've all had neighbours we didn't like, but two people from Sault Ste. Marie have been awarded more than half a million dollars for the 'extreme' behaviour of the people who lived next to them.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada says summer of 2024 is now Canada's most destructive season on record for insured losses due to severe weather events.
Premier Danielle Smith says she plans to reinforce the right to decide whether to receive a vaccination or other medical procedure in changes to the Alberta Bill of Rights.
Video of a B.C. man's surprise encounter with a black bear has gone viral online, generating much discussion about how to best respond when face-to-face with an aggressive animal.
Donald Trump flubbed the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, while going off script during a speech on Tuesday otherwise focused on economic policy, slamming U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for lying about 'Charlottestown.'
Prince Harry said today's youth is in the midst of an 'epidemic' of anxiety, depression and social isolation due to negative experiences online, as he brought his campaign to help children and their parents navigate cyberspace to this week's Clinton Global Initiative.
The federal government is advising Canadians in Lebanon to leave now while commercial flights are available, saying, 'Canada is not currently offering assisted departures or evacuations.'
A former Memphis police officer who has pleaded guilty to violating Tyre Nichols鈥檚 civil rights testified in tears Tuesday, saying he left Nichols鈥檚 young son fatherless, that he was sorry and that he wishes he had stopped the punches.
Japan's top diplomat asked China to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens there after the fatal stabbing of a Japanese schoolboy, and demanded a crackdown on what she called 'groundless, malicious and anti-Japanese' social media posts that threaten children's safety.
The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida of former President Donald Trump has been arrested on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse images.
MPs debated the first non-confidence motion of the fall House of Commons sitting today, seeing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre push once again for a snap election. But with votes secured to keep them afloat, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals were quick to turn the discussion into a referendum on the Conservative alternative.
Canada鈥檚 budget watchdog says the federal government may not meet its fiscal anchors if it acquiesces to the Bloc Quebecois' demand to expand seniors benefits in exchange for keeping the minority Liberals in power.
Steven Guilbeault accused Pierre Poilievre of catering to his 'rich friends' in the oil and gas sector by pushing a policy to scrap carbon pricing.
The province has announced a new plan to lower the age for mammogram self-referrals to 40 from 50 in an effort to get more Manitobans screened for breast cancer.
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, season is just a few months away, but new vaccine options have already arrived for Ontario residents who may be vulnerable to the winter bug.
Private nursing agencies could cost Canadian health-care facilities approximately $1.5 billion in 2023-24, according to a new report commissioned by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.
Scientists have discovered a new species of ghost shark that lives in deep ocean waters near Australia and New Zealand.
A new analysis of dozens of arrowheads is helping researchers piece together a clearer portrait of the warriors who clashed on Europe鈥檚 oldest known battlefield 3,250 years ago.
Finally, an emoji to represent us all is coming soon: An exhausted face with bags under its eyes.
Canadian rapper Drake and rockers Arkells are among the top musical talent set to be toasted at the SOCAN Awards tonight.
Another woman sued Sean 'Diddy' Combs on Tuesday, alleging that the music mogul and his head of security raped her and recorded it on video at his New York recording studio in 2001.
The Crown's key witness in the sexual assault trial against former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard will take the stand in a northern Ontario courtroom Tuesday afternoon following the judge's instructions to the jury.
Given the continued progress the Bank of Canada has made in bringing inflation back down to the 2 per cent target, it is reasonable to expect more rate cuts, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday.
Some Royal Bank of Canada employees who joined when the bank acquired HSBC Canada worry they could lose their jobs when RBC's six-month guarantee to keep them expires this month, according to six sources familiar with the situation.
Metro Vancouver grain terminal workers are now on strike, bringing tens of millions of dollars of exports to a standstill.
From cellphone 'hotels' to patchwork policies to recalibrating lesson plans, teachers and schools across Canada are learning to navigate a classroom without cellphones.
An ordinary day on the job delivering mail in East Elmwood quickly turned dramatic for Canada Post letter carrier Jared Plourde. A woman on his route was calling out in distress.
The Newcomers Football Club, an impromptu team made up of asylum-seekers, has helped provide Boubacar Lukaku and others with a joy that erases their stress. And it's helped connect them with a supportive community as they navigate the challenges of a new country.
Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre revealed Tuesday at a hearing on federal welfare reform that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Reid Carruthers seeks a three-peat in curling's quirky PointsBet Invitational that's become an unofficial season kickoff because of money, field and visibility.
Cole Perfetti will suit up for the Winnipeg Jets for another two years.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) reported this week that officers in the agency's Montreal Marine and Rail Services seized 78 vehicles and transferred them to police. Numbers of stolen vehicles in Quebec continue to skyrocket.
Struggling Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis is looking for a CEO to succeed Carlos Tavares, but the company says it's just part of a normal leadership succession plan.
The U.S. Commerce Department on Monday will propose a ban on the sale or import of smart vehicles that use specific Chinese or Russian technology because of national security concerns, according to U.S. officials.
An ordinary day on the job delivering mail in East Elmwood quickly turned dramatic for Canada Post letter carrier Jared Plourde. A woman on his route was calling out in distress.
Fire has destroyed a barn and 17,000 plants at a family-owned business in Lower Coverdale, N.B.
Before influencers on social media, Canada鈥檚 Jeanne Beker was bringing the world of high fashion down to earth and as Calgary鈥檚 Glenbow Museum gets a major make-over, it will include a new exhibition showcasing the pop culture icon.
A sea lion swam free after a rescue team disentangled it near Vancouver Island earlier this week.
A Nova Scotian YouTuber has launched a mini-truck bookmobile.
Cole Haas is more than just an avid fan of the F.W. Johnson Wildcats football team. He's a fixture on the sidelines, a source of encouragement, and a beloved member of the team.
Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.
An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.
They say a dog is a man鈥檚 best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A trio of B.C. Mounties who were suspended three years ago over their alleged participation in an "atrocious," "racist" and "horrible" group chat are currently receiving their salaries, the federal police force has confirmed.
Video of a B.C. man's surprise encounter with a black bear has gone viral online, generating much discussion about how to best respond when face-to-face with an aggressive animal.
Metro Vancouver grain terminal workers are now on strike, bringing tens of millions of dollars of exports to a standstill.
An 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in a caught-on-video incident in Mississauga earlier this month is now facing auto theft charges in Toronto.
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, season is just a few months away, but new vaccine options have already arrived for Ontario residents who may be vulnerable to the winter bug.
The City of Toronto is still playing catch-up from last year's vacant home tax debacle.
Premier Danielle Smith says she plans to reinforce the right to decide whether to receive a vaccination or other medical procedure in changes to the Alberta Bill of Rights.
A Calgary man is facing child pornography charges after an investigation uncovered years of messages exchanged with an alleged felon.
A transgender Albertan says it would be a slap in the face if Premier Danielle Smith allows back into the government caucus a member who once compared transgender children to feces.
As sirens sound in Lebanon amid escalating violence between Israel and militant group Hezbollah, many Ottawa residents with family there find it hard to watch.
Ottawa police say two people under the age of 18 have been arrested following an incident that prompted a lockdown at Glebe Collegiate Institute around the noon hour Tuesday.
Ottawa's new three-item garbage limit takes effect Monday, and some residents took full advantage over the weekend, throwing out as much waste as possible.
The heat is rising for Quebec Premier Fran莽ois Legault as opposition parties demand answers about his government's investment in the planned Northvolt battery factory near Montreal.
Quebec's language watchdog received a record number of complaints from citizens last year and carried out an increasing number of inspections on employers.
One of Montreal's biggest cultural institutions, La Tulipe, announced that it has closed down 'for now' in light of a recent court decision.
One person was hospitalized after a crash involving a Valley Line Southeast LRT train and a semi Tuesday morning.
A transgender Albertan says it would be a slap in the face if Premier Danielle Smith allows back into the government caucus a member who once compared transgender children to feces.
Premier Danielle Smith says she plans to reinforce the right to decide whether to receive a vaccination or other medical procedure in changes to the Alberta Bill of Rights.
As temperatures cool down, the Halifax Regional Municipality is serving eviction notices to residents at one of the city鈥檚 larger tent encampments.
Antigonish County District RCMP is trying to track down a man wanted on a provincewide arrest warrant for sexual assault in Nova Scotia.
The Saint John Police Force is asking for the public鈥檚 help in locating Eric Martin, 48, who is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.
Unions representing roughly 25,000 health-care support workers have issued a strike notice, alerting the province its members will walk off the job if a deal is not reached before a looming deadline.
The province has announced a new plan to lower the age for mammogram self-referrals to 40 from 50 in an effort to get more Manitobans screened for breast cancer.
An ordinary day on the job delivering mail in East Elmwood quickly turned dramatic for Canada Post letter carrier Jared Plourde. A woman on his route was calling out in distress.
A study from the University of Ottawa has laid out a damning portrait of the current state of violence and harassment educators face in schools, according to the Saskatchewan Teachers鈥 Federation (STF).
A report from a tribunal appointed by the Saskatchewan Party government says a proposed federal emissions cap and methane regulations would cause severe economic damage.
Health care is shaping up to be a major issue for this fall鈥檚 provincial election in Saskatchewan and on Monday both the Sask. Party and NDP announced plans on how they will work to improve the sector if elected this fall.
A reward of up to $50K has been issued by Waterloo Regional Police for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Joshua Bennett.
Environment Canada says southwestern Ontario could get up to 55 mm of rain by Wednesday morning.
An image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in February 2023 has been obtained by CTVNews.ca.
A man and woman in Saskatoon who had two kilograms of methamphetamine seized from a home are going back to trial after having their acquittals overturned.
A study from the University of Ottawa has laid out a damning portrait of the current state of violence and harassment educators face in schools, according to the Saskatchewan Teachers鈥 Federation (STF).
The Saskatchewan Government is in the province's highest court fighting to prevent a Court of King鈥檚 Bench judge from determining if its Parents' Bill of Rights actually violates the Charter.
An image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in February 2023 has been obtained by CTVNews.ca.
We've all had neighbours we didn't like, but two people from Sault Ste. Marie have been awarded more than half a million dollars for the 'extreme' behaviour of the people who lived next to them.
A 49-year-old Sudbury woman who was killed in a tragic collision with a police boat June 7 on Nepewassi Lake was told to remain in a residence on an island until police returned to pick her up.
鈥淚 was going to make breakfast, and I put the frying pan on the stove and opened it and remembered I needed something from No Frills,鈥 said Frank Wall, who lives just north of Aylmer, Ont.
A model for the future of affordable housing neighbourhoods is rapidly taking shape in St. Thomas this week.
The calls are growing louder for city council to tighten the rules governing short-term accommodations, including those advertised on websites like Airbnb and Vrbo, after students arrived by the busload at a rented house in the Masonville neighbourhood.
Three construction workers are being praised for their actions that police in Barrie say likely prevented an armed man from fleeing before being taken into custody.
Four puppies were found near County Road 21 in Essa after a passerby spotted one when it ran out of the ditch and onto the road.
An Uber driver was handed a 12-month driving ban on Tuesday following a collision that injured a pedestrian and killed a dog in Barrie.
Windsor police officers are asking for the public鈥檚 help identifying and finding a suspect after a convenience store robbery in south Windsor.
Given the continued progress the Bank of Canada has made in bringing inflation back down to the 2 per cent target, it is reasonable to expect more rate cuts, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday.
A man swimming across the Detroit River from Windsor to Detroit was rescued by a mail boat, according to the J.W. Westcott Company.
A man and a woman from Nanaimo, B.C., are facing more than two dozen charges after police seized four guns and several hundred grams of illicit drugs following a complaint about drug trafficking in the city's downtown core.
Former British Columbia chief coroner Lisa Lapointe has emerged from retirement to throw her weight behind a BC Green's campaign pledge to expand safer supply of opioids and other drugs to deal with the province's deadly overdose crisis.
Video of a B.C. man's surprise encounter with a black bear has gone viral online, generating much discussion about how to best respond when face-to-face with an aggressive animal.
A pair of runaway pigs are in the custody of an animal sanctuary in the Okanagan after evading police and volunteers for hours earlier this week.
The Red Bridge, a historic landmark in Kamloops, B.C., was completely destroyed by fire early Thursday morning.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls 鈥 including one that gave birth to 10 puppies 鈥 from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
To make higher education an easier step to take for Indigenous students, the University of Lethbridge is dropping some fees for those applicants.
Authorities arrested a man from Pincher Creek after shots were fired near a home on the Blood Tribe First Nation.
A former Lethbridge pastor who bilked millions out of hundreds of southern Albertans has appealed his conviction and sentence.
A 25-year-old suspect was charged with impaired driving Sept. 21 after police spotted two people without helmets on an ATV on Sand Bay Road in Goulais River.
A federal offender who was last seen in Sudbury is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for allegedly breaching his statutory release conditions.
The Crown's key witness in the sexual assault trial against former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard will take the stand in a northern Ontario courtroom Tuesday afternoon following the judge's instructions to the jury.
Newfoundland and Labrador sponsored a minor football team in England, now they鈥檙e about to play one of the biggest clubs in European soccer.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at 麻豆影视. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.
