Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated Tyre Nichols' family is seeking $500 million, which is incorrect. The family is seeking $550 million.

The family of Tyre Nichols, the man who died after being beaten by Memphis police in January, filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the City of Memphis.

During a news conference Wednesday, April 19, the family’s attorney Ben Crump said the family is seeking $550 million in damages. The lawsuit did not specify an amount.

“The amount is a message,” Crump said. ‘If you keep giving license to these gang-minded police officers to perpetrate acts of terrorism on Black and brown people, then we’re coming to your city.”

Tyre Nichols’ family to sue City of Memphis

Also listed amongst the defendants are Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, five officers charged with killing Nichols, two additional MPD officers and three Memphis Fire Department employees.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Western Tennessee.

“The savage beating of Tyre Nichols was the direct and foreseeable product of the unconstitutional policies, practices, customs, and deliberate indifference of the City of Memphis and Chief Davis, the City’s chief policymaker for decisions related to the Memphis Police Department,” the lawsuit said.

The suit puts blame on Davis and Assistant Chief Shawn Jones, who followed Davis from the Atlanta Police Department, and said the tactics of the SCORPION unit officers who beat Nichols on Jan. 7 were reminiscent of APD’s RED Dog Unit and was history repeating itself. 

“Turning a blind eye to these officials’ histories of disregard for the Constitution and the rights of Atlanta citizens, the City of Memphis made a conscious choice to disregard the rights of its own, to bring these two individuals on, and to bestow them with the highest law enforcement authority possible within their police department,” the suit said.

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The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages as allowed under law.

“Tyre Nichols was not the first victim — though he is their first known fatality,” the lawsuit reads when describing the SCORPION unit.

The lawsuit has a total of 25 counts of civil rights violations and claims for relief amongst the listed defendants. Most of the counts are claims of Fourth and 14th Amendment violations stemming from the traffic stop, excessive force and the failure to render aid.

There are four Monell claims against Chief Davis, claiming that the custom of tolerance and violating official policy, lack of supervision and lack of training led to Nichols’ death. A Monell claim allows someone to sue a municipality for unconstitutional policies or practices.

The civil suit is the second piece of legal proceedings expected to play out in Memphis over the next several years. The five former police officers charged with second-degree murder in Nichols' killing are awaiting trial.

“How does this horrific and unconstitutional treatment of Black men and women by law enforcement continue to happen,” Crump said in a release Wednesday morning. “Tyre’s condition in the hospital can be likened to that of Emmitt Till who was also beaten unrecognizable by a lynch mob. But, Tyre’s lynch mob was dressed in department sweatshirts and vests, sanctioned by the entities that supplied them. Please, Memphis. Please, America, we must hold these people accountable and create meaningful change once and for all. We can not let another seventy years go by.”

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The lawsuit from Nichols’ family is among a slew of Civil Rights cases filed against the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department in the last six months and is another facet of the department’s mounting legal troubles. One lawsuit, filed by Monterrious Harris, a man who says he was beaten by members of the SCORPION Unit just days before they beat Nichols, has a hearing next week. 

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In the wake of Nichols and facing those lawsuits, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has said a voluntary review of MPD by the Department of Justice would show whether the department has culture issues. 

That review is not a more stringent pattern and practice investigation that the DOJ conducted in the wake of Breonna Taylor’s death in Louisville or Freddie Gray’s in Baltimore though local leaders have called for such an investigation. Strickland said a few weeks ago he was not aware of any other DOJ investigation. 

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Lawsuit expected, police brutality settlements mounting nationwide 

The lawsuit was expected. It comes amid an escalation in size and scope of financial payouts made by municipalities in police brutality cases nationwide, according to national reports and an expert who spoke with The Daily Memphian earlier this year. 

New York City settled $121 million worth of cases last year, according to The New York Times. In the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, that city settled with Floyd’s family — also represented by Ben Crump — for $27 million.

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Memphis could face pressure to settle, one expert said in February.

“Tyre Nichols has horrible, egregious optics. George Floyd, it’s horrible, egregious optics,” Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said in February. “In Tyre Nichols’ side, George Floyd’s side, you really don’t see both sides, you only see the side of clear misconduct.”