FBI agent: Two officers have claimed responsibility for the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An FBI agent who interviewed two former Memphis police officers on trial in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols testified Thursday that they accepted responsibility for their involvement.

FBI Special Agent Anthony Householder testified in the federal trial of Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who pleaded not guilty to charges of excessive use of force, failure to intervene and obstruction of justice by witness tampering. Two other former officers, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., testified after pleading guilty to depriving Nichols of his civil rights.

Householder said he interviewed Bean and Smith as part of the FBI's investigation into the January 2023 beating.

Householder said Smith told him that he and Martin both hit Nichols. Smith said he should have stopped Martin from hitting Nichols, Householder said.

Smith added that he did not tell paramedics about the beating of Nichols because he thought Nichols could tell them himself, Householder said. Nichols died in the hospital on January 10, 2023, three days after the beating.

Officers used pepper spray and a taser on Nichols, who is black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who are also black, then punched, kicked and beat him about a block from his home as he called for his mother. The video also shows the officers loitering and even laughing as Nichols struggled with his injuries.

Smith “took responsibility” and said he had failed, Householder testified.

Bean also took responsibility and told Householder that he had previously withheld information about the beating because he did not want to be seen as an “informer,” the FBI agent testified.

“He didn’t want to let his team down,” Householder said.

Householder said he did not record the interviews. When asked by Bean's attorney, John Keith Perry, Householder acknowledged that some agents record such interviews, which are summarized by FBI agents and referred to as proffers. But the recordings are not required, Householder said.

Earlier Thursday, Mills testified that he had never seen Bean or Smith take part in the “street tax,” which is police jargon for punishing people who flee from police. Prosecutors allege that officers used the “street tax” or “run tax” against Nichols.

The officers were part of a now-disbanded crime-fighting unit. Under cross-examination by Smith's attorney, Martin Zummach, Mills said he got to know Smith well during the two years they served together with the Scorpion Unit. Mills said he had never seen Smith mistreat people before and Smith would not tolerate other officers mistreating suspects.

Mills, who pepper-sprayed Nichols and hit him with a baton, said it was possible the beating could have stopped if one of the officers had told him to stop.

Mills, who cried on the witness stand earlier this week and apologized during his testimony, said Thursday he “couldn't take it anymore” after watching the video of the beating.

“I didn’t want to stand there and say I did the right thing,” Mills said.

Bean, Haley and Smith face life imprisonment if convicted.

The five officers were also charged with first-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 yet been set.

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Associated Press reporter Kimberlee Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee.