Memphis officials have released disturbing police footage Tyra Nichols ArrestedA 29-year-old black man who died earlier this month in hospital three days after being violently taken into custody during a traffic stop.
Family members, city leaders and activists strongly criticized the conduct of the officers shown in the footage, five of whom were fired and charged with murder and demanded the city make it public.
On Friday evening, it did just that, making up to an hour of footage public.
In the first part of the video, it shows officers pulling the young man, getting him out of the vehicle and onto the floor.
One of them is heard saying: “B**ch your hands behind your back before I break them”.
The video shows the officers trying to use their Tasers on Mr Nicholls, who then flees the scene.
When the first group of officers hear over their radios that the young man has been apprehended, another is heard saying: “I hope they bust his ass.”
The officers caught up with Nichols then wrestled him to the ground and Nichols was pepper sprayed in the face.
An officer can be heard shouting, “I’m going to attack you.”
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Nichols could be heard on the ground crying out loud for his mother.
The officers can then be heard on the bodycam video repeatedly yelling at Nichols “Give me your f***ing hand.”
Another officer can be heard from pepper spray saying, “That mom got me sprayed”.
The video then showed Nichols slumping against a car while the officers stood by laughing, explaining the arrest and what they had done to apprehend him.
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“I jumped in, started shaking him,” one officer can be heard boasting as another claims Nichols hands his gun.
“He literally got his hands on my gun. That mother***** was over there,” the officer said.
In addition to bodycam video of the officers, the city of Memphis also released video from a police camera attached to a light pole right across from the scene of the incident.
According to CNN, that camera, which had no sound, showed that Nichols had been struck nine times in four minutes.
After the video was released, protesters closed parts of Interstate 55 Memphis,
Protests began shortly after the video was released at 7 p.m. ET, with a large crowd on I-55 in downtown Memphis heading toward the Mississippi River bridge, according to ABC 24,
According to NBC News, the protesters then proceeded towards the city’s police station.
Meanwhile, groups of protesters also gathered in New York’s Times Square, Washington DC and Atlanta, Georgia.
President Joe Biden called the video “appalling” and said it was a “painful reminder” of the fear black and brown Americans face while calling for peaceful demonstrations.
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“Like so many others, I was outraged and deeply saddened to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in the death of Tyra Nichols,” the president said in a statement. “It is another painful reminder of the deep fear and trauma, pain and exhaustion that black and brown Americans experience every day.”
And the president added: “We must do everything in our power to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to its promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment and dignity for all,” Biden continued. “Real and lasting change will only come when we take action to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.”
Rowan Wells, Mr. Nichols’s mom, Told Earlier on Friday: “I want to say to the five police officers who killed my son, you dishonored your own families by doing this.”
She said: “I’m going to pray for you and your families because at the end of the day this should not have happened. It should not have happened. We want justice for our son.”
Rodney Wells, Tyr Nichols’ stepfather, said the group of officers as well as medics who attended later showed a blatant disregard for the man who had just been severely beaten.
“No one helped him. They walked around, smoking cigarettes like it was all cool and like, you know, bragging about what happened,” Mr. Wells told CNN, “He was sitting there, and then he fell over. And an officer went over to him and said, ‘Sit back up mother******,’ while he’s handcuffed.
City and state officials have strongly condemned the officers’ conduct.
David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is helping investigate the incident, Told He was “sickened” by the conduct seen in the video of the police stop, which “did not reflect proper policing at all.”
“We are here to pursue truth and justice, realizing that we should not be here,” the director told a news conference on Thursday. “Simply put, this should not have happened.”
“I’m saddened, and frankly I’m shocked—I’m sickened by what I saw,” he said.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelin Davis said earlier this week that the group of officers in the video—Taddeus Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith—were “directly responsible” for “physically abusing” Nichols. . The officers’ actions were “heinous, reckless and inhumane”.
“It is a failure of basic humanity towards other subjectivity,” she said. Told In a video statement.
Video shows excessive use of police force Compare until Rodney King’s infamous beating by the Los Angeles Police.
Also the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee Nichols death investigationThe arrests suggest the former officers involved could face federal charges, on top of the local ones.
Tyr Nichols’ family has asked protesters to show their support peacefully.
“It’s going to be terrible, but I want each and every one of you to protest peacefully. I don’t want us to burn down our cities, destroy our streets because my son didn’t stand for it,” Ms Wells Told The vigil was held on Thursday, the night before the video was released.
This is breaking news and will be updated with new information,