The parents of Tyre Nichols, who was beaten by five Black Memphis police officers and left to die by an ambulance driver who refused to get out of her truck, sued the city of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department for $550 million.

Nichols was beaten on January 7, 2023, and died three days later in a local hospital after being arrested for reckless driving. 

The family filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Western Tennessee on Wednesday charging that the “hyper-aggressive specialized unit [that was formed to fight violent crime and that arrested Nichols in a traffic stop gone very wrong] was sanctioned and tolerated by the Memphis Police Department and the chief of police, Cerelyn Davis, and the City of Memphis.†Davis formed the Scorpio unit to hunt Black men.

The police officers are Tadarrius Bean, Demetris Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mill J r., Justin Smith, and Preston Hemphill. They were all fired in January.

The police could be seen kicking and punching Nichols who escaped the cops but was immediately recaptured and beaten brutally. Five of the six police officers were charged with second-degree murder.

The Memphis Fire Department dispatched Engine 55 to the scene. The firemen were Robert Long, JaMichael Sandridge, and Lt. Michelle Walker, but Walker never got out of the truck to assist in any way.