Stepmom seen in shootout with 2-year-old in car during livestream, TN cops say
A dad said his 2-year-old daughter was seen in the back seat of a car during a shootout broadcast on Facebook Live, according to Tennessee police.
The girl's 47-year-old stepmom is charged with child endangerment and reckless endangerment by discharging a firearm from within a motor vehicle, Shelby County court records show.
McClatchy News is not identifying the woman to protect the identity of her stepdaughter.
Officers with the Memphis Police Department responded to a call about a shooting at an apartment complex May 18 involving a white Ford Fusion and two men, according to an affidavit of complaint.
Investigators spoke with a dad who said his child's stepmother 'was seen on Facebook Live with his daughter in the back seat, involved in a shootout,' police wrote in the report.
The dad identified her as the wife of his children's mother, according to officers. He said she drove a white Ford Fusion, and her niece stayed at the apartment complex where the shooting happened, investigators said.
Officers watched the Facebook Live, which they said showed the woman firing shots from her car with a child in the back seat as she was facing a volley of gunfire from someone else.
Surveillance footage from the apartment complex showed a white Ford Fusion leave the complex, then a woman started running, police said. The Ford Fusion came back into view, and two men were seen firing shots at it, according to police.
Records show the woman was booked in Shelby County jail June 4.
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Demetrius Haley's sentencing is set for Tuesday. Sentencing for two other officers involved in the beating, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., are set for next week. Bean, Haley and Smith were found guilty in federal court in Octobe r of obstruction of justice through witness tampering related to the coverup of the fatal beating, which sparked nationwide protests and prompted renewed calls for police reforms in the U.S. The officers failed to say that they or their colleagues punched and kicked Nichols and broke Memphis Police Department rules when they did not include complete and accurate statements about what type of force was used in required forms submitted after the January 2023 fatal beating. Like Bean, Smith was acquitted of more serious civil rights charges by the federal jury. Haley was found guilty of violating Nichols' civil rights by causing bodily injury and showing deliberate indifference to medical needs. He was also convicted of conspiracy to witness tamper. The three officers were acquitted in May of all state charges, including second-degree murder. The jury for the state trial was chosen in majority-white Hamilton County, which includes Chattanooga, after Judge James Jones Jr. ordered the case be heard from people outside of Shelby County, which includes majority-Black Memphis. Defense lawyers for the officers had argued that intense publicity made seating a fair jury difficult. Martin and Mills pleaded guilty in federal court last year to violating Nichols' civil rights by causing death and conspiracy to witness tamper. They did not stand trial in federal court with their former colleagues. Martin and Mills also avoided the trial in state court after reaching agreements to plead guilty there. Both Martin and Mills testified in the federal trial, and Mills also took the stand in the state trial. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, fled a traffic stop after he was yanked out of his car, pepper-sprayed and hit with a Taser. The five officers, who are also Black, caught up with him and punched, kicked and hit him with a police baton, struggling to handcuff Nichols as he called out for his mother just steps from his home. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. Footage of the beating captured by a police pole camera also showed the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries, video that prompted intense scrutiny of police in Memphis. The officers were fired after Nichols' death. They were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit that was disbanded weeks after the beating. The team targeted illegal drugs and guns and violent offenders to amass arrests, while sometimes using force against unarmed people. In December, the U.S. Justice Department said a 17-month investigation showed the Memphis Police Department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people. The investigation also found that Memphis police conducts unlawful stops, searches, and arrests. The city said the day of the DOJ's announcement that it would not agree to negotiate federal oversight of its police department under a formal consent decree until it could review and challenge results of the investigation. However, in May, the Trump administration announced it was retracting the findings of Justice Department investigations into police departments, including Memphis', that the Biden administration had accused of civil rights violations. The city has hired a former federal judge and created a task force to address police department reforms. The task force has not announced any recommendations. The five officers, the city of Memphis and the police chief are being sued by Nichols' family for $550 million. A trial has been scheduled for next year.
