Former Memphis Police officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith all pleaded not guilty on Friday on second-degree murder charges following last month's death of Tyre Nichols.

They were fired and charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.

Nichols died three days after he was confronted by a group of Memphis Police officers following a traffic stop on Jan. 7.

The five officers faced a Tennessee judge on Friday for their arraignment.

Video of the incident prompted nationwide protests and calls for police reform. In four different clips, officers are seen spraying Nichols with what appears to be pepper spray, beating him with a baton and kicking him in the head.

Nichols remained on the ground for about 25 minutes without police or medical personnel addressing his injuries.

Nichols' face was beaten and bloodied.

Two additional deputies and two Memphis Police officers were disciplined by their departments, but not criminally charged.

NEW YORK —

A New York Police Department officer was killed and another critically wounded Friday night while responding to a call from a woman about her son, who "suddenly, without warning" shot at them from the back room of a Harlem apartment, police said.

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell denounced the death of the 22-year-old officer, while Mayor Eric Adams spoke in sweeping terms about the need to crack down on illegal guns.

"Countless officers lined this hallway after carrying him in and grieve for their brother while praying with everything they have for the other" officer, Sewell said. "I am struggling to find the words to express the tragedy we are enduring. We're mourning, and we're angry."

Authorities said the officers, along with a third officer, went to the apartment on 135th Street after a call came in from a woman needing help with her son, identified by police as Lashawn J. McNeil, 47.

Authorities said the officers spoke with the woman and another son, but there was no mention of a weapon. Then two of them walked from the front of the apartment down a narrow hallway.

NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said McNeil swung open a bedroom door and opened fire at the officers, striking them.

As McNeil tried to flee, a third officer who'd stayed with McNeil's mother in the front of the apartment shot at McNeil and wounded him in the head and arm, Essig said.

A law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to respond publicly had said the man died, but authorities did not speak about his condition at the press conference, or take any questions.

McNeil's last known address is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, about 90 miles west of New York City.

Police dispatch audio captured some of the chaotic scene, including an officer screaming for assistance and another officer informing the dispatcher that two officers had been shot.

One officer asks for "three buses" or ambulances to the scene, a six-story apartment building, and police to block off traffic on the route to nearby Harlem Hospital. The building is on a block between two iconic Harlem avenues: Malcolm X Boulevard and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard.

An officer was wounded in the leg Tuesday night in the Bronx during a struggle with a teenager who also shot himself. On Thursday, a narcotics detective was shot in the leg on Staten Island.

Before Friday, the last NYPD officer killed in the line of duty was Anastasios Tsakos, who was struck by a suspected drunken driver in May 2021 while assisting officers at the scene of an earlier crash on a Queens highway.

The last NYPD officer fatally shot in the line of duty, Brian Mulkeen, was hit by friendly fire while struggling with an armed man after chasing and shooting at him in the Bronx in September 2019.

Mulkeen's death came about seven months after Det. Brian Simonsen was killed by friendly fire while he and other officers were confronting a robbery suspect at a cell phone store in Queens.

In 2017, Officer Miosotis Familia was ambushed by a gunman as she wrote in a notebook in a mobile command post. In 2016, Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo was killed in a gunfight with a man who'd broken into his estranged wife's home.

In 2015, Officer Randolph Holder was shot and killed by a man riding a stolen bicycle in Manhattan and Officer Brian Moore died after he was shot by a man in Queens.

The year before, Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were fatally shot by a man who ambushed them as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn.

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Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela in Essex County, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

ST. PAUL, Minn. —

Jury selection began Thursday in the federal trial for three former Minneapolis police officers who are charged with violating George Floyd's constitutional rights while fellow Officer Derek Chauvin used his knee to pin the Black man to the street.

J. Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are broadly charged with depriving Floyd of his civil rights while acting under government authority. Separately, they're charged in state court with aiding and abetting both murder and manslaughter.

Legal experts say the federal trial will be more complicated than the state trial, scheduled for June 13, because prosecutors in this case have the difficult task of proving the officers willfully violated Floyd's constitutional rights — unreasonably seizing him and depriving him of liberty without due process.

"In the state case, they're charged with what they did. That they aided and abetted Chauvin in some way. In the federal case, they're charged with what they didn't do — and that's an important distinction. It's a different kind of accountability," said Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.

Phil Turner, another former federal prosecutor, said prosecutors must show the officers should have done something to stop Chauvin, rather than show they did something directly to Floyd.

Would-be jurors have already answered an extensive questionnaire, and were being brought into a federal courtroom in St. Paul in groups, where U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson was questioning them. The process will continue until a group of 40 is chosen. Then, each side will get to use their challenges to strike jurors. In the end, 18 jurors will be picked, including 12 who will deliberate and six alternates.

The judge told potential jurors they should let him know if any responses to their questionnaires have changed. He also asked each to stand and talk about themselves, including where they live, their job history, education, military service, hobbies and families.

He also acknowledged the media attention on the case, saying, "I'm sure all of you know something about what happened to George Floyd."

Magnuson has said he believes jury selection could be done in two days, unlike the state trial for Chauvin, where the judge and attorneys questioned each juror individually and spent more than two weeks picking a panel.

He said the trial is expected to last four weeks.

Floyd, 46, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin pinned him to the ground with his knee on Floyd's neck for 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was facedown, handcuffed and gasping for air. Kueng knelt on Floyd's back and Lane held down his legs. Thao kept bystanders from intervening.

Chauvin was convicted in April on state charges of murder and manslaughter and is serving a 22½-year sentence. In December, he pleaded guilty to a federal count of violating Floyd's rights.

Federal prosecutions of officers involved in on-duty killings are rare. Prosecutors face a high legal standard to show that an officer willfully deprived someone of their constitutional rights; an accident, bad judgment or negligence isn't enough to support federal charges.

Essentially, prosecutors must prove that the officers knew what they were doing was wrong, but did it anyway.

Kueng, Lane and Thao are all charged with willfully depriving Floyd of the right to be free from an officer's deliberate indifference to his medical needs. The indictment says the three men saw Floyd clearly needed medical care and failed to aid him.

Thao and Kueng are also charged with a second count alleging they willfully violated Floyd's right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not stopping Chauvin as he knelt on Floyd's neck. It's not clear why Lane is not mentioned in that count, but evidence shows he asked twice whether Floyd should be rolled on his side.

Both counts allege the officers' actions resulted in Floyd's death.

Federal civil rights violations that result in death are punishable by up to life in prison or even death, but those stiff sentences are extremely rare and federal sentencing guidelines rely on complicated formulas that indicate the officers would get much less if convicted.

"This trial is going to present an evolutionary step beyond what we saw at the Chauvin trial because we're not looking at the killer, but the people who enable the killer. And that gets a step closer to the culture of the department," Osler said.

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Associated Press writer Tammy Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan.

CINCINNATI —

Cincinnati police said a man stabbed two people in Westwood on Thanksgiving Day.

Officers shocked him with a taser and shot him in the leg while he was still wielding the knife, according to police.

Investigators said the officers involved are now on administrative leave, which is standard protocol.

Meanwhile, neighbors who saw the chaos are glad it's over.

The FOP president told WLWT that the suspect has since been treated and released from the hospital, but he will be charged.

It was an unnerving way for people to spend the holiday.

"I seen the arguing and all of that took place, but then afterwards, police showed up, all of that came and I'm like, 'Oh my God,'" a neighbor who didn't want to be identified told WLWT.

The neighbor has only lived in Lafeuille Apartment Homes for a few months but said this holiday with her two small children has now been marred by madness next door.

"I mean, even if there is a little bit of family drama, you're not expecting it to end in stabbings. So, yes, it definitely is shocking and crazy. Especially for it to happen in this apartment complex," she said.

She didn't want to be identified to protect her family.

Cincinnati police said a 911 call came in Thursday afternoon, reporting someone in an apartment trying to stab people.

They said two officers responded and found a man and a woman stabbed.

Investigators told WLWT that officers told the suspect to drop a knife and when the suspect wouldn't comply, they fired a gun and deployed a taser.

The specific timeline has not been released by CPD.

"We don't have that set of sequence of events as of yet," Asst. Chief Terri Theetge said.

Police said the suspect was shot in the leg.

He was at UC Medical Center and in stable condition, police said.

Officers said no one has life-threatening injuries.

FOP President Dan Hils released a statement about the incident late Thursday night:

"Today, while most Cincinnati residents safely enjoyed Thanksgiving with family, our local police officers were on patrol, protecting people. One of those officers was called to a local home after a 911 call about a dangerous man with a knife who was cutting people. She and another officer came upon a man wielding a knife. That man refused orders to drop the knife and then approached the officers with the knife. Both officers immediately saw the threat, and both acted quickly. One officer deployed his Taser device while the other simultaneously fired her service weapon. They stopped the threat. The criminal was treated and released from the hospital, and he will be charged. Both officers are uninjured. Everyone in Cincinnati can be thankful that, even on holidays, they have brave, quick-thinking police officers on patrol, risking their own lives to protect others."

It's still not clear what led up to the stabbings, as CPD remains tight-lipped.

Neighbors said they are relieved the incident is over.

"I didn't want them watching that. I was watching it but I was keeping them away from the windows, when the arguing, you know, I didn't want them to hear all of that. It's Thanksgiving, you know," the neighbor said.

No one at the apartment involved answered the door.

There was blood on the ground as well as empty bandage wrappers just outside the door.

Cincinnati police said they believe the victims and the suspect are family members.

They haven't shared the suspect's name, age, or if he has a criminal history.

Police said the Criminal Investigation Section is now investigating and the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office is involved.

Police reform has been at the forefront of protests the past few weeks, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The qualified immunity doctrine is getting a lot of attention.

“Qualified immunity is a doctrine that was created by the Supreme Court in 1967 in a case called Pierson v. Ray, and when the Supreme Court announced the existence of qualified immunity, they described it as a good faith defense,” Joanna Schwartz, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, said.

However, there have been debates on how this doctrine can be used.

In recent weeks, Congressman Justin Amash proposed the “Ending Qualified Immunity Act” (H.R. 7085).

“Qualified immunity is just another example of a justice system that is not working for people, and preventing people from getting the redress they deserve,” Representative Justin Amash (L-Michigan) said.

So, we dove into qualified immunity with Joanna Shwartz, a law professor who studies civil rights litigation, and Justin Smith, a sheriff in Larimer County, Colorado.

“Qualified immunity first of all has nothing to do with criminal immunity,” Sheriff Justin Smith said.

Smith has been with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department for nearly three decades.

“Who in their right mind would build a career on running towards gun fire and confronting an armed suspect? Why would you do it without some type of civil protection?,” he explained.

We sat down with him as he explained why qualified immunity is important for his officers.

“I’d simply ask the question to the average American, is a police officer expected to be perfect in all of their actions in a split second?,” he asked.

Smith said without qualified immunity, one incorrect decision made by an officer could cost a lot.

“If you didn’t call that exactly right by one judges interpretation, that's a lawsuit,” he said.

“Every time the officer puts on the shirt, the badge, straps on the firearm, comes to work, every action they take responding to a case essentially is as if they went to Vegas and they walked up to the table, placed a five dollar bet, and in Colorado for example, would cost them up to $100,000. Who's going to make that bet?,” Smith explained.

However, those who want qualified immunity removed say the doctrine has changed over the years and it’s not necessary to protect officers who act in good faith when it comes to protection of rights.

“Concerns about split second decision making...are already protected from liability by the Supreme Court's construction of what the Fourth Amendment allows. Qualified immunity is unnecessary to do that,” Schwartz explained.

She went on to explain why she believes that qualified immunity isn’t necessary for the protection of money, either.

“I studied lawsuit payouts across the country over several years, I found that police officer personally contributed .02 percent of the total dollars paid to plaintiffs,” she said.

Schwartz said while the doctrine was originally created as a good faith defense, it has changed over the years to make it harder for people to file lawsuits against officers.

“In order to defeat qualified immunity, find a prior case with virtually identical facts in which a court announced that that conduct was unconstitutional,” she said.

Which has been an issue for James King from Michigan, who told a reporter he was assaulted by an officer in plain clothes in a mistaken identity case. The incident was caught on camera back in July 2014.

“The simple fact is the majority of this time this situation happens to anyone, they have no recourse,” King said.

Officers are often forced to make decisions in a split second.

“This is a risk taking profession,” Smith said. “We can say the criminal justice system isn't perfect and that's accurate. Nothing in society is perfect. I think it’s overall improved significantly over the years.”

But Schwartz thinks officers acting in good faith can be protected by other measures.

“Qualified immunity is not necessary or well suited to play that role in weeding out insubstantial cases,” she said.

Both Smith and Schwartz agree that when looking at proposed changes to qualified immunity on the federal and state level, it’s important to look at what officers the bill is including -- whether that be local, county, state, or federal officers.

“Congress’ bills at this moment only end qualified immunity for state and local officials,” Schwartz explained. “As we are thinking about state and local law enforcement, we should not overlook the role of federal law enforcement and other government officials.”

HOUSTON, Texas — Houston's police chief says four police officers have been terminated after an internal investigation determined they did not use reasonable force when they fired their weapons 21 times at a man who had been experiencing a mental health crisis.

The man, 27-year-old Nicolas Chavez, was already injured and on the ground when he was shot and killed by the officers on the night of April 21.

During a news conference Thursday, video footage was presented from body cameras showing Chavez, who had already been shot and was bleeding, kneeling on the ground and grabbing a stun gun when the four officers shot him.

WARNING: The video below contains graphic clips and may be difficult to watch.

"Let me be clear, it's objectively not reasonable to utilize deadly force when a man's already been shot multiple times, has been tased, has been on the ground, has shown that he really cannot get up," said Police Chief Art Acevedo on Thursday. "I cannot defend that."

At the briefing, Mayor Sylvester Turner said the dismissal of the four officers isn’t an indictment of the police department and its nearly 5,300 others officers.

“But when you are wrong, there are consequences,” he continued. “And for the good of every police officer who serves, for the good of everyone that followed the rules, that protect this city, it is important for us to call a ball a ball, and a strike, a strike."

Turner acknowledged the effect Chavez’s death has had on the city and expressed sympathy for his family.

"What happened the night of April 12 has dramatically affected many people and this city,” said the mayor. “Nicolas Chavez’ life was taken, and his family must live with their personal loss and anguish for the rest of their lives."

Leaders with the Houston Police Officers’ Union denounced the firings, saying the officers tried to de-escalate the situation but were forced to shoot Chavez.

“This unjust and deplorable decision by Chief Acevedo has sent a shock wave through HPD. Even if you deescalate, retreat, follow policy, training and the law...you will still lose your job as a Houston Police Officer,” tweeted Joe Gamaldi, the president of the Houston union.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement Thursday that prosecuters will be conducting an independent review of all the evidence in Chavez’s death and once it’s complete, the findings will be presented to a grand jury. They’ll determine whether charges will be brought against the officers involved.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A grand jury will not seek charges against officers shown on body camera video holding Daniel Prude down naked and handcuffed on a city street last winter until he stopped breathing.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the decision Tuesday. She added that many will be “rightfully” disappointed, but said they must respect the decision.

“Daniel Prude was in the throes of a mental health crisis and what he needed was compassion, care, and help from trained professionals. Tragically, he received none of those things,” said James. “We concluded that there was sufficient evidence surrounding Mr. Prude’s death to warrant presenting the case to a grand jury, and we presented the most comprehensive case possible. While I know that the Prude family, the Rochester community, and communities across the country will rightfully be devastated and disappointed, we have to respect this decision.”

The 41-year-old Black man’s death last March sparked nightly protests in Rochester, New York, after the video was released nearly six months later.

The video made public on Sept. 4 shows Prude handcuffed and naked with a spit hood over his head as an officer pushes his face against the ground. Lawyers for the seven police officers suspended over Prude’s death have said they were strictly following their training.

The county medical examiner listed the manner of death as a homicide.

While the grand jury voted not to indict any officers, James says “serious concerns” remain regarding the actions of the Rochester Police Department.

“The current laws on deadly force have created a system that utterly and abjectly failed Mr. Prude and so many others before him. Serious reform is needed, not only at the Rochester Police Department, but to our criminal justice system as a whole,” said James. “I will be pursuing a multifaceted approach to address the very issues that have prevented us from holding officers accountable when they improperly use deadly force.”

The AG has issued a number of recommendations to address said concerns, specifically when handling mental health crises:

1. James says officers, dispatchers and EMS personnel must be trained to recognize the symptoms of excited delirium syndrome and to respond to it as a serious medical emergency.
2. She says all communities should assess models for responding to crisis situations that minimize or eliminate police responses to mental health calls whenever possible.
3. The AG believe New York should mandate de-escalation training for all officers, and police agencies should reflect a commitment to de-escalation in their use of force policies.
4. She says the City of Rochester should adopt a body worn camera release policy regarding critical incidents.
5. And lastly, James says law enforcement agencies should explore the use of spit sock alternatives.

Two Senate committees are set to release new reports later this month on the security failures surrounding the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, but they are leaving out President Donald Trump’s role in inciting the riot.

The lack of answers is insulting to many who defended the Capitol that day, including two officers who are speaking out about their experiences during the attack.

United States Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell immigrated from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. at 12 years old in 1991 and deployed to Iraq in 2003. He joined the Capitol Police in 2008.

He is speaking publicly for the first time about Jan. 6, when he fought rioters trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election. He says those who breached the Capitol called him a "traitor."

"I served my country," Gonell said. "I went overseas to protect our homeland from foreign threats, but yet here I am battling them in our Capitol."

Gonell led members of the department’s civil disturbance unit. For hours, they battled the rioters attacking the Capitol.

"I got hurt. I would do it again if I have to, it's my job," Gonell said.

Gonell suffered a cut to his hand on Jan. 6. He also suffered a severe foot injury that later required surgery.

"They kept saying, 'Trump sent me. We won't listen to you. We are here to take over the Capitol, we're here to hang Mike Pence,'" Gonell said. "They thought we were there for them and we weren't, so they turned against us. It was very scary because I thought I was going to lose my life right there."

Some of the most horrific videos show Gonell steps from Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who got caught in a doorway.

"I could hear my fellow officers screaming, the agony in some of them," Gonell said. "All I could think was, 'we can't let these people in. There's going to be a slaughter inside.'"

While he fended off the attack outside, Officer Byron Evans locked down areas inside the Capitol and evacuated senators.

"I remember thinking, all that stuff like, 'Byron, this is the day. All those times you've given thought on what you would do, you're doing it,'" Evans said,

For hours, Evans and the senators watched the riot on TV from a secured location.

"I just remember the anger I felt when I saw those images — busting windows, climbing the walls and stuff like that, it was an audible gasp in the room," Evans said.

Around 6 p.m. that evening, the riot had calmed enough that Gonell could finally tell his wife he survived.

"I started texting my wife and I just said, 'I'm okay. See you whenever,'" Gonell said.

Congress resumed certifying the electoral college votes that night. Gonell arrived home around 3 a.m. the next morning but found little relief.

"When I came in, she wanted to hug me and I told her no because I was covered in pepper spray," Gonell said. "My hands were bleeding still, and I couldn't even sleep because I went and took a shower and instead of helping, that re-inflamed the chemicals."

Gonell said he later took a bath with milk in the hopes of washing out the pepper spray.

"That didn't help," he said.

Though they were still reeling from the worst attack the Capitol had seen in two centuries, Gonell, Evans and hundreds of other officers went back to work just hours later.

"I did give my wife a hug and started crying," Gonell said. "I didn't think I would be able to see them. I went to my son's bed and gave him a hug, he was asleep still, gave him a kiss. And I just started crying for 5-10 minutes. I just cried. She kept telling me it was going to be okay. I'm like, 'no, I've got to go back to work.;"

For him, the riot is hardly in the rearview. The failure of a bill to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the causes of the riot left him devastated and gave him a reason to speak out

"It hurts me that the country that I love, that I came in, that I have sacrificed so much for, doesn't care about us. They don't," Gonell said.

To date, more than 400 people have been charged in the riot.