No Criminal Charges for Former Officer Who Fired Taser at Tyre Nichols

Why It Matters: Mr. Hemphill is cooperating with prosecutors.

Mr. Mulroy said he expected that Mr. Hemphill would testify in court as prosecutors pursue charges against the other officers.

Mr. Hemphill has repeatedly met with investigators in recent weeks, Mr. Mulroy said, as the Memphis Police Department took steps to have the state bar him and the other officers involved in the encounter with Mr. Nichols from ever again working for a Tennessee police agency.

According to internal affairs paperwork filed as the state asked to disbar Mr. Hemphill, he helped pull Mr. Nichols from his car after the traffic stop and deployed his Taser for three seconds when Mr. Nichols fled after being pepper sprayed by another officer. “The subject was not armed, and did not impose an immediate threat to you or others,” the paperwork stated.

At the news conference, Mr. Mulroy read a statement on behalf of Mr. Nichols’s family, provided by their lawyer, Ben Crump, which cited Mr. Hemphill’s cooperation as a reason they supported the decision.

Lee Gerald, a lawyer for Mr. Hemphill, said, “We are obviously pleased with the turn of events that the case has taken.” He added that Mr. Hemphill “continues to honor his oath as a police officer to enforce the law, and that would include fully cooperating in all aspects of a criminal prosecution.”

What’s Next: Cases against the five charged officers will move forward.

The fallout from the violent beating of Mr. Nichols has drawn scrutiny to the Memphis Police Department’s history of excessive brutality and led to a series of administrative punishments, including a few suspensions and the firing of two E.M.T.s and a lieutenant with the Memphis Fire Department.

A formal autopsy will be released soon, Mr. Mulroy said, and is expected to “confirm that Mr. Nichols died as a result of the injuries sustained in the beating.”

The family of Mr. Nichols has also filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Police Department and the City of Memphis over the death of their son. The criminal cases against the five officers charged in Mr. Nichols’s death — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — are also set to move forward in the coming weeks.

Jessica Jaglois contributed reporting from Memphis.