MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — Civil rights attorney Ben Crump calls the death of Tyre Nichols an injustice and his legal team, now representing the Nichols family, is demanding police reform and training of MPD officers.  

“Most of the problem with policing in America that we and why we have to stand up and talk about this is not only because of the lack of training but the continuity of training. When bad training takes place, it’s the deprogramming that’s required in order to retrain and get better at what you do,” said attorney Antonio Romanucci, who is part of the family’s legal team.

When it comes to excessive force by police, attorney, former county commissioner and NAACP president Van Turner told WREG poorly trained officers, no matter their race, are disproportionately harming black and brown people.

“No matter who is involved in the law enforcement side, it appears black and brown citizens bare the brunt of excessive force,” said Turner. “We just, I think, need to focus back on training. As we know these officers were young on the force. I think they’ve all been on the force less than five years. Perhaps a senior officer on site would have been helpful to calm these down and de-escalate the situation.”

Turner says city and county leaders must push for and implement plans such as sensitivity training for law enforcement.

“There are a number of things I think we can do from a training perspective. We had a reimagining law enforcement of police committee which put forth some of these plans. So, I think we just have to implement them and follow these to prevent these kinds of tragedies,” he said.

The kind of tragedy they say should never have happened to Tyre Nichols or another person.

“What happened to Tyre should be the end. Not only are we looking for justice, but we’re looking for changes. We have to demand policy changes,” Romanucci said.

Attorneys representing the Nichols family they their lawsuit will be wide in scope as it looks into police practices in Memphis.