A new federal lawsuit accuses the same officers charged with murder in the death of Tyre Nichols of assaulting another Black man in Memphis, Tenn. days earlier.

Local Memphis station WMC reported that Monterrious Harris, 22, sued the City of Memphis and the five former officers for an alleged assault on Jan. 4, three days before the same Black cops beat Nichols, 29, to death.

According to the lawsuit, Harris was visiting his cousin at a Memphis apartment complex when the cops, then part of the now-disbanded Scorpion Unit, a street crimes squad that targeted violent offenders, attacked him.

Wearing black ski masks and not identifying themselves as officers, the cops punched, stomped and dragged Harris across the pavement, the lawsuit alleges. The beating would have continued if a witness didn’t interrupt the attack.

Harris didn’t immediately receive medical care for his injuries, the lawsuit alleges.

“It was not until he arrived at the criminal justice center that an on-duty nurse ordered that he be taken to the hospital for emergent medical observation and treatment. Fortunately, unlike Mr. Nichols, Mr. Harris survived his encounter with the Scorpion Unit and is alive and able to recount the events,” the lawsuit states, according to WMC.

According to Harris, he was in a car at the complex when men, wearing ski masks with guns drawn appeared, NBC News reports. “Get out the car, or I’m going to shoot,” Harris recalled one of them saying. Harris said he thought he was getting carjacked.

Harris said he put the car in reverse to escape but backed into a wall. He jumped out of the vehicle and ran. But they caught him and began a vicious assault.

A police affidavit of complaint filed by the arresting officers tells a different story.

According to the affidavit, the Scorpion unit was conducting an investigation at the apartment complex when Harris drove toward the officers at high speed before stopping, NBC News reports.

An officer asked Harris to roll down his window after smelling marijuana, the affidavit said. But Harris reversed his car and then ran away. The police allege that they found a 9 mm handgun, live rounds, marijuana and Xanax, an anxiety medication, in the vehicle.

Harris was charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a handgun, criminal trespass, evading arrest, felony possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell, and other counts. He was convicted in 2021 in Arkansas for fleeing cops in a manner that could cause substantial injury or death.

Harris has denied that his car smelled like marijuana and insists that the gun was not his.

The police affidavit names five of Harris’ arresting officers as the former officers involved in the Nichols case: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Desmond Mills Jr.

Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis announced Jan. 20 that they were fired after a police probe into the death of Nichols. Prosecutors later charged them with one count of second-degree murder, aggravated assault-acting in concert, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of official misconduct and one count of official oppression.