The retired Memphis police officer who criticized police after they beat Tyre Nichols to death, has now died. Mark LeSure’s family members said they found him dead on his driveway on Sunday.
“He was in the driveway when we got here, lying face down,” LeSure’s aunt, Rose LeSure-Jones, told WREG-TV. “Whatever it was he didn’t deserve this. He really didn’t. He was a good guy. One of the good guys, really.”
According to WREG, a woman named Shuntae Daniels is accused of stealing from LeSure after he collapsed on the driveway. The court documents reveal that Daniels first asked LeSure for gas money when she saw him outside of his home. Daniels told police that he went inside the house to bring the money for her, then collapsed when he came outside.
According to police, Daniels admitted that she went into the home after LeSure collapsed and stole from him, taking his phone and wallet. She also said she went through his pockets outside. Additionally, Daniels admitted to using Lesure’s phone to send $1,500 to herself, police said.
She was also heard on Surveillance video as she said, “We are going to see who knows the law.” Daniels is now facing charges of aggravated burglary, theft of property and identity theft.
LeSure, who joined the Memphis Police Department in 1992, retired recently and returned to school to obtain his master’s degree. The 57-year-old had also served in the U.S. Army, spending ten years as a military police officer. Friends and family say he is remembered for his dedication to the community.
“He had outreach ministries to young people in the community, a few blocks away. Westwood community center and now they just lost a mentor,” LeSure’s friend Randie Fleming told WREG. “It’s one thing you hear gang members shooting and killing each other dying, but someone who is an upstanding guy, he served his community.”
The retired officer was part of a group who launched a non-profit to help the youth.
“We are starting a non-profit for this neighborhood to try to get these kids engaged, get them away from gun violence, pick up a book,” he told WREG in 2022. “We fought with our pen and paper, we didn’t fight with fists and guns.”
LeSure spoke up earlier this year after police beat Tyre Nichols to death during a traffic stop.
“Human beings man, that’s what happened,” he told The New York Times. “They let their emotions get the best of them, and there was no veteran officer there to stop them. Usually, when vets are there, things go differently because we have that experience to say, ‘I understand you’re mad, but you got to stop. You can’t do this, it isn’t right.'”
Memphis police faced nationwide backlash after bodycam footage showed officers chasing Nichols, then kicking him and beating him as he desperately called for his mother. The five officers involved in the fatal incident, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith, were fired from the department. All five officers pleaded not guilty in February after facing multiple charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, as Blavity previously reported.
Police said the investigation into LeSure’s death is ongoing.
