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(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Tyre Nichols’ mother has sued the city of Memphis and members of the police department over his death following a violent traffic stop in the city, court records show.

Her attorney, Ben Crump, said the lawsuit is seeking $550 million for the “torture” of Nichols, 29, who died three days after he was beaten by police during a Jan. 7 traffic stop. Body camera footage of the altercation showed officers striking Nichols repeatedly.

“This landmark lawsuit is not only to get the justice for Tyre Nichols in the civil courts, but it is also a message that is being sent to cities all across America who have these police oppression units that have been given the license by city leaders to go and terrorize Black and brown communities,” Crump said during a press briefing Wednesday outside the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office in Memphis.

The 139-page, 25-count civil complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court, includes allegations of excessive force and “deliberate indifference to serious medical needs,” and called the traffic stop “unreasonable.”

It also claims the police department failed to properly train its officers, including those in the now-deactivated SCORPION unit that was involved in Nichols’ arrest.

“The City of Memphis, through the Memphis Police Department, maintained a custom of tolerance for SCORPION Officers’ unreasonable search and seizure of individuals, use of excessive force, and the violation of the Fourth Amendment prior to the violation of Tyre Nichols’ constitutional rights and death,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit also claims that Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, suffered emotional distress due to “negligent acts and omissions” by officers following the incident and that police made “false representations” to her regarding her son’s condition.

“This has nothing to do with the monetary value of this lawsuit, but everything that has to do with accountability,” Wells said during Wednesday’s briefing. “Those five police officers murdered my son. They beat him to death. And they need to be held accountable along with everyone else that has something to do with my son’s murder.”

“How many more Tyres is this going to happen to? We just can’t have this,” she added.

The complaint, which is demanding a jury trial, lists Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis and the five now-former officers charged in connection with Nichols’ death — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — among the defendants. Preston Hemphill, a police officer who was fired but not charged, is also named in the lawsuit.

Also named in the suit are emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge, Memphis Fire Lt. Michelle Whitaker, who was also in the first ambulance to arrive, and DeWayne Smith, who was a police lieutenant who retired before he could be fired.

ABC News has reached out to the city of Memphis for comment.

The Memphis Police Department told ABC News it does not comment on pending litigation.

All five officers who were directly involved in the beating have been charged with second-degree murder. The officers all pleaded not guilty in their first court appearance on Feb. 17.

Seven other police officers were terminated following the incident, according to city of Memphis chief legal officer Jennifer Sink.

The incident has also sparked a Department of Justice review of the Memphis Police Department’s use-of-force and de-escalation policies.

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(HINKLEY, Calif.) — Nearly 30 years after a California desert town successfully sued a utility company over contaminated water, an emerging piece of technology is being installed to bring some relief.

An engineering firm has set up hydropanels in Hinkley, California, which create clean water using a system that draws in moisture, air and the sun.

“There’s no water connection anywhere. This is a fully off-grid autonomous technology,” Colin Goddard of SOURCE Global told ABC News’ Ginger Zee as he showed off an installed model.

Even though some contend the technology’s costs may be too high at the moment to bring water to such remote areas, some families who have been living there said the panels are a lifesaver.

Roberta Walker, a Hinkley resident who worked with Erin Brockovich in her lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric for contaminating the water, told ABC News Live that the community – comprised of about 300 people – is still reeling from the chromium 6 that’s in the ground.

Many of the homes in the area became uninhabitable and several families were forced to move out, she said.

“People that can’t afford to buy or build anywhere else…because it’s a toxic wasteland,” she said.

Goddard said hydropanels have been installed in 50 countries around the world to help communities like Hinkley that barely have clean water access.

The solar-powered hydropanels use fans to draw air and push it through water-absorbing material, according to Goddard. The material traps the water vapor from the air, which is then extracted and condensed into clean water, he said.

“You can quite literally put these on the ground, point them towards the sun, and make your own drinking water,” he said.

But with those benefits comes a major cost. Goddard said the panels, which last about 20 years, cost $4,000 upfront.

Yoram Cohen, the director of the water technology research center at UCLA, told ABC News that those costs may not be sustainable. Cohen noted that the average person needs about 2 liters of water a day, but the hydropanels currently produce 3 to 5 liters for one household.

“If you are in an area where you have no water whatsoever… the question is why? Why would you want to actually develop residential [properties]?” he asked.

Still, Maria Monroy, of Newbury Springs, California, told ABC News that the tech’s upfront cost is worth it. She said she and her family had to rely on gallons of bottled water a month.

On top of the cost of the bottles, Monroy said she also had to spend 30 minutes driving to pick them up.

“Hopefully other people do want to get them in their properties and be able to rely on it that way,” Monroy told ABC News.

Walker said she’s hopeful that the technology can help out her town and the people still living there, even if it will take more time.

“[You] have hope that there’s going to be change in this world and that somebody, somewhere, somehow is going to figure out a way to clean up this land,” she said. “But I hope that it will happen for my kids and my grandkids.”

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(VENTURA, Calif.) — A suspect has been arrested after allegedly stabbing a Walmart employee before driving his car onto the sidewalk, killing a 15-year-old boy and injuring three other teens in Ventura County, California.

Austin Eis, 24, was arrested for murder, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting a police officer and brandishing a weapon, Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Wendell Campbell said at a press conference Wednesday.

The suspect’s bail has been set at $5 million. He will be arraigned Thursday at Ventura County Superior Court. Eis, who was initially in the hospital due to injuries from the crash, is now in police custody, according to Campbell.

Before the deadly crash, which authorities believe was intentional, the suspect stabbed a Walmart employee and assaulted a second person, according to the Simi Valley Police Department.

Eis allegedly fled the scene before officers arrived, but witnesses told police he was driving a white Toyota Camry missing its front bumper and gave them its license plate number, according to the Simi Valley Police Department.

The Walmart employee suffered at least one stab wound and was transported to a local trauma center for treatment, police said.

While authorities were investigating the Walmart stabbing, Eis was apprehended at the scene of a collision where he crashed into four Westlake High School students, according to the Simi Valley Police Department.

The vehicle drove off the street and struck the students as they were walking on the sidewalk, according to the school district. Three were transported to nearby hospitals for medical attention while the fourth student was killed.

Two of the student victims have now been released from the hospital while the third is still receiving care, Campbell said.

Police have not yet determined the suspect’s motive for the attacks, Thousand Oaks Police Department Chief Jeremy Paris said. Paris added that authorities do not believe Eis has a prior criminal record.

Campbell said it is likely that the suspect was living out of his car.

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(ATLANTA) — DeKalb County has released the autopsy results related to the death of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, who demonstrated against the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center earlier this year.

The training center has been the subject of controversy. City officials assert that the center could improve policing, while critics claim the effort is militarizing police and endangering communities.

Teran, who went by “Tortuguita” and used they/them pronouns, was shot and killed by police on Jan. 18 as officers raided campgrounds occupied by environmental demonstrators who had allegedly been camping out for months to protest the development of the training center, dubbed “Cop City” by critics.

According to the autopsy sent to ABC News, Teran did not have gunpowder residue on their hands. Officials claimed Teran fired the first shot at a state trooper. Officers then responded with gunfire.

Teran had at least 57 gunshot wounds in their body, according to the autopsy, including in the hands, torso, legs and head.

An independent autopsy from the family found that Teran’s hands were raised during the fatal shooting. The Dekalb County autopsy stated, however, “there are too many variables with respect to movement of the decedent and the shooters to draw definitive conclusions concerning Mr. Teran’s body position.”

Teran’s death has been ruled a homicide, according to the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office.

There is no body camera footage of the incident, police said. Officials say investigations into the incident are ongoing.

The Georgia Department of Public Safety told ABC News it cannot comment due to an open and ongoing investigation. ABC News has also reached out to the legal team of Teran’s family for comment.

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(HEBRON, N.Y.) — The dad of 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, who was shot and killed in the passenger seat of a friend’s car when they turned into the wrong driveway, is demanding justice.

“Their friend that they were going to see was a half-mile down the road,” her father, Andrew Gillis, told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “For this man to sit on his porch and fire at a car that posed no threat is just — angers me so badly. And I just hope to God that he dies in jail.”

On Saturday night, Kaylin Gillis and her friends mistakenly pulled into the driveway of 65-year-old Kevin Monahan in rural Hebron, New York, while they were looking for a friend’s house, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said.

Monahan fired at least two shots toward the group and fatally hit the 20-year-old, authorities said. Andrew Gillis said his daughter’s boyfriend was driving at the time of the shooting.

“There was no reason for Mr. Monahan to feel threatened, especially as it appears the vehicle was leaving at the time,” Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said.

Monahan was initially “uncooperative with the investigation and refused to exit his residence to speak with police,” the sheriff’s office said. Monahan was later taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder.

“My daughter was an honor student,” Andrew Gillis told reporters on Wednesday. “She had hopes and dreams of becoming a marine biologist or veterinarian. She loved animals. And this man took that away from us.”

“I have the utmost confidence that the justice system will prevail,” he added. “Kaylin deserves justice.”

Monahan made his first appearance in court on Wednesday afternoon. Monahan’s lawyer argued that he isn’t a flight risk, noting that he’s been in the community for over 30 years and owns his own company, but Monahan was ordered remanded without bail.

Monahan’s attorney, Kurt Mausert, told Albany ABC affiliate WTEN that there were “three vehicles, one of them a loud motorcycle, that are described as coming up my client’s long driveway — a 3-mile driveway — at a high rate of speed, shining their lights in his house late at night.”

“[Monahan] had no idea who they were, what they were doing there. It was not a simple drive in, turn around, drive out, that’s being portrayed again by the sheriff,” Monahan said. “So, the facts of this case are going to have to come out through both witness interviews and the analysis of forensic evidence. It is way too soon to be pronouncing guilt and be pronouncing what someone is thinking, and whether they were entitled to feel fear, or whether they weren’t.”

Mausert added, “We have an elderly gentleman and his elderly wife living out in the dark woods in Washington County with three vehicles that come roaring into his driveway at a high rate of speed, shined their lights at his house, and not leaving when he turns on the floodlights, so certainly there was cause for an element of fear on Mr. Monahan’s part.”

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(SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO) — There is a side of Puerto Rico that many Americans may not know about.

The tropical paradise is best known for its colorful buildings, cobblestone-lined streets, lush forests and sun-drenched beaches. But hidden in plain sight are also signs of a booming industry that has overtaken much of the island for decades.

Manufacturing industries were lured to the island in the1960s and 1970s, after a now-expired federal tax incentive known Section 936 exempted businesses from federal income tax on profits earned by U.S. companies in U.S. territories.

The more businesses came ashore, the more it affected the quality of life for residents on the island, some residents told ABC News.

A town called Barceloneta, located on the island’s north shore, is so synonymous with the pharmaceutical industry that there is a sign that says “Pharmaceutical Town” when you enter, “because there are pharmaceutical companies everywhere,” a resident named Joeli told ABC News. Real estate listings for office buildings tout the municipality as the “preferred Pharmaceutical town of Puerto Rico.”

Puerto Rico accounted for 19.3% of the $66 billion in pharmaceuticals the U.S. exported in 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.

The island acting as one of the country’s top producers of pharmaceuticals has brought numerous economic benefits for the island and its residents, but it has also come at significant cost, advocates told ABC News.

“Puerto Rico, in many cases, has become kind of an engine of manufacturing drugs that can go directly to the U.S.,” Julio Lopez Varona, the co-chief of campaigns at the Center for Popular Democracy, told ABC News.

The influx of business, in continuation with a government development program touted as “Operation Bootstrap” that began in the 1940s, was supposed to create jobs for locals on the island, Ruth Santiago, an attorney based in Salinas, Puerto Rico, and an environmental health advocate with Earth Justice, told ABC News.

“Puerto Rico, since 1898, has been a colony of the United States. And since then, the U.S. has kind of manipulated Puerto Rico’s economy to benefit the needs and the wants of the U.S.,” Varona said.

In addition, the industrial parks created by the government, which involved multiple plant sites placed in the same area, have had a long history of water violations, Santiago said.

In April 2020, Teva Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients was fined more than $500,000 for alleged Clean Water Act and other environmental violations at its pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico. The plant shut operations after TAPI struggled to come into compliance, Jose Rivera, lead environmental engineer of multimedia permits and compliance branch of the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division, told ABC News.

“After TAPI closed, which was around 2017, we found out that there was also pollution to the groundwater coming from this plant,” Santiago said.

When asked for comment, a representative for Teva Pharmaceuticals, TAPI’s parent company, told ABC News, “While Teva did not admit liability, the Company has resolved all of the claims raised at that time.”

And one mile away is the Fiber Public Supply Wells super fund site, created over 20 years ago and for which six different manufacturing companies were found responsible for the pollution from the solvents that they used, according to Santiago. Because it is so difficult to remove pollutants from groundwater, the EPA says the remediation efforts take a very long time but that monitoring indicates that the pollutants are contained.

The environmental effects from manufacturing activity on the island are expected to require treatment and monitoring for decades to come, the experts said.

But several residents told ABC News that the pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries provide much-needed jobs for locals. The environmental detriments of industry are “part of the deal,” Varona said.

“I have very close friends that have been able to kind of build their lives around pharmaceuticals,” Varona said, “It has been an economic kind of opportunity for, for many people.”
 

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