Video shows detectives struggling with murder suspect over gun
A newly released video depicts the frantic struggle to regain control of a detective’s gun from a man who police said had confessed moments earlier to killing a toddler.
The video of the interrogation room, released Tuesday, begins when murder suspect Terrell Rhodes is by himself. He becomes agitated and pulls at his handcuffed wrist with his free hand.
“Let me out of here,” he says, crying. “I can’t go back.”
Rhodes served time in prison in 2017 and 2018 for burglary and robbery, court records show.
In the video, detectives can be seen entering the room and trying to calm Rhodes down.
One detective, Opal Deeds, moves a Coke can off the table. Rhodes then stands up partially on the chair, reaches over and removes Deeds’ loaded gun from its holster.
Rhodes, 27, can be heard screaming and groaning during the struggle. Detectives push him face down on the table, and Deeds appears to be hitting him repeatedly in the face.
Two other detectives come in to help pry the gun away from Rhodes.
“Terrell, drop the gun. You’re making things worse,” one detective shouts.
Earlier in the interview, according to police, Rhodes told officers he hit 2-year-old Amari Nicholson after the boy wet himself.
The man attempted CPR, but he could see that Amari had died and could not be revived, one detective testified at a grand jury hearing.
Rhodes first told police that Amari had been kidnapped from the Emerald Suites apartments where the boy lived with his mom, Tayler Nicholson, who was Rhodes’ girlfriend.
But Rhodes would later draw officers a map to lead them to the body, buried just a few hundred yards away from the complex where Amari vanished May 5, police said.
Amari’s body was found May 12 underneath the wall near an asphalt overhang that lines the parking lot of the nearby Siegel Suites and McDonald’s.
Rhodes was indicted by a grand jury and faces a charge of murder, two counts of attempted murder, four counts of assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon and four counts of resisting a police officer with the use of a firearm.
He is expected back in court June 25.
Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE on Twitter.