Tyre Nichols was found slumped over on the ground after a Memphis police officer was first seen appearing to kick him in the face, and it took 26 minutes for a stretcher to arrive at the scene.
That was stated in one of the four videos that the authorities released on Friday night. Nichols, 29, was brutally assaulted while pulled over during a traffic stop on January 7 and died three days later.
The video displayed four perspectives: One video was from a police surveillance camera mounted on a pole, and the other three were from officer body-worn cameras. In the films, Nichols was shown getting punched, having a baton swung at her, appearing to be booted in the face, and being sprayed with an irritant. They also got footage of him pleading with them to take him home and calling out for his mother.
Additionally, they seemed to depict the police’s forceful, disorganized, and occasionally conflicting demands of Nichols, such as when they insisted he shows his hands even while his arm was gripped and lifted to his feet. They also depict officers punching him as if they were holding him.
“These were monsters that did this to my son,” Nichols’ stepfather, Rodney Wells, said on MSNBC Friday night.
“My son weighed 150 pounds. Each one of these officers was over 200,” Wells said. “That’s 1,000 pounds beating on my son, using him as a piñata — all this unnecessary force that was really not needed for a kid that wasn’t resisting, or just trying to get home to his parents.”
The original traffic stop was captured on camera, showing a chaotic situation as the officers take Nichols from the car, shout orders over one another, and occasionally threaten him. The videos show Nichols running after being sprayed in the face with what appears to be pepper spray or another irritant.
The scenario where officers have caught up to Nichols at another site is seen on pole camera video from above. The footage shows Nichols lying on the ground as the camera pans over. The footage depicts him being kicked and assaulted.
The city’s top police official, Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, had previously described the conduct captured in the disturbing and graphic video as “heinous, reckless and inhumane.” President Joe Biden said he was outraged Friday night, and called what is seen in the videos horrific.
After the meeting, Nichols was taken to the hospital in critical condition and passed just three days later. The police first claimed that Nichols fled during the reckless driving stop and that a “confrontation” took place to detain him. However, details regarding what transpired between Nichols and the policemen have been scant.
However, Davis claimed on Friday on MSNBC that a review of the available camera footage and an inquiry could not “substantiate” the reckless driving claim.
In addition to being dismissed, five Memphis police officers were also accused of second-degree murder and other offenses. According to Davis, other officers are still being looked at about the suspected policy infractions in the traffic stop. Two Shelby County sheriff’s deputies at the scene on Friday night were stripped of their duties, awaiting the outcome of an inquiry after the tapes were made public.
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The videos
The four movies, which have a combined runtime of around 67 minutes, were released by Memphis around 6 p.m. local time. The faces of those involved in the confrontation are not blurred in the films, but the license plates of nearby parked cars are.
In one video, an officer approaches the vehicle under traffic control, points his gun at it, and yells, “You’re going to get your a— blown the f—- out.”
The video shows him lying on his side with one arm held by one police and the other beneath him while being held by a second officer as the officers yell at him to fall on the ground and put his hands behind his back.
Nichols says, “OK, dude, dang!” at one point, and “you guys are really doing a lot right now. … I’m just trying to go home.”
The footage shows him yelling at the officers, “I’m on the ground!” before what looks to be a chemical irritant is sprayed on him. The footage shows that he can stand up and run while an officer uses a Taser.
The three other videos depict the moment Nichols was apprehended by police in a neighborhood less than 80 yards from his mother’s house, according to his mother. In one of those videos, Nichols can be seen lying on the ground while two officers watch over him and appear to be punching him. He can be heard yelling “mom” a short while afterward.
The footage indicates that while Nichols is down, one cop seems to kick him in the head before striking him with a baton. The videos don’t seem to depict any overt Nichols resistance.
The video shows a third officer punching Nichols repeatedly in the face or head while standing and being held by two other officers. Nichols’ legs give out from under him, and he collapses.
In one video, Nichols is shown in handcuffs on the ground with his back against a car while officers congregate and chat after the attack. One states that the chemical irritant also affected him, and another claim to have hurt his leg. The video captures Nichols slumping down on his side less than two minutes later.
At 8:41 p.m., the first medic was visible on a security camera, however it’s unknown what assistance he provided. Five minutes pass at one point without Nichols receiving any physical care. In the video, he can be seen rolling around on the sidewalk while adjacent officers converse.
An officer stated in a video that after trying to stop Nichols but failing, he “swerved like he was going to hit my car,” before stopping at a red light while using his turn signal.
“So we jump out of the car,” the officer says in the video. “S— went from there.”
Family lawyers describe the video as ‘horrific.’
On Monday, a private screening of the tape was made available to Nichols’ family. RowVaughn Wells, his mother, only survived for the first minute, according to Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, his family’s attorneys.
Wells stated, “What I’ve heard is horrible, even if I haven’t seen all the material.
In a Friday news conference, she said, “Any of you with kids, please don’t let them see it.
The Memphis community was bracing for potential protests in response to the video release, with Memphis-Shelby County Schools canceling after-school activities Friday and Southwest Tennessee Community College moving to virtual classes Friday.
Wells called for people to protest peacefully during a Thursday night’s candlelight vigil in Memphis’ Tobey Park. “I don’t want us burning up our cities, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” she said.
Memphis saw protests on Friday but no reports of any violence.
Following the vandalism of a police cruiser in New York City, authorities said three persons were detained during protests. Additionally, there were demonstrations in Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.
According to Romanucci’s description on Monday, the three-minute-long video was an “unadulterated, unashamed pounding.” Crump, referring to the 1991 eyewitness footage of Los Angeles police officers beating a Black man, said it reminded him of “the Rodney King video.”
In an interview that aired Friday morning on CNN, Nichols’ mother discussed her sadness and said that by the time she arrived at the hospital after his arrest and met him, “He was already gone.”
“They had beat him to a pulp. He had bruises all over him, his head was swollen like a watermelon, his neck was busting because of the swelling, they broke his neck, my son’s nose looked like an “S,” she said.
According to Crump, three “gut-wrenching screams for his mom” were heard in the video as Nichols’ final words.
Davis made a video statement about the incident on Wednesday night, calling it “heinous, reckless, and inhumane.”
“I expect you to feel what the Nichols family feels,” she said. “I expect you to feel outrage in the disregard of basic human rights, as our police officers have taken an oath to do the opposite of what transpired on the video.”
Biden says he was ‘outraged and deeply pained.’
Biden expressed his outrage in a statement following the publication of the videos. He has spoken with Nichols’ parents earlier on Friday and has demanded a prompt, thorough, and transparent investigation.
“Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death,” Biden said. “It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”
Police chiefs, public officials, and mayors from across the country expressed outrage, condemned the officers’ actions, and said what happened to Nichols should never have occurred.
FBI Director Christopher Wray earlier Friday said, “I’ve seen the video myself, and I will tell you I was appalled.”
The Charges
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith were the five officers involved in the case who was fired last week after an administrative review revealed they had broken the department’s rules regarding the use of force.
Steve Mulroy, the district attorney for Shelby County, told reporters that Nichols died due to the former officers’ actions.
Mulroy claimed that Nichols fled from the officers after an “initial altercation” during which “pepper spray was utilized.”
“There was another altercation nearby, where Mr. Nichols experienced serious injuries,” Mulroy continued. “After some time of waiting around afterward, he was taken away by an ambulance.”
The reason for the traffic stop is not visible in the video of the incident that was made public on Friday.
On Thursday, the fired cops were charged with two counts of official misconduct, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, one act of official oppression, and one count of aggravated assault in addition to second-degree murder.
Nichols’ family and counsel complimented the prompt accusations and investigation during the news conference on Friday.
“We look at how swiftly the district attorney brought charges against them in less than 20 days. Then we want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward for any time any black or white officers will be held accountable,” Crump said.
As of Friday morning, all five were released from custody after posting bonds. Haley and Martin posted a $350,000 bond, while Bean, Mills, and Smith posted a $250,000 bond.
Since they were fired, several attempts to contact the officers for comment have been unsuccessful.
Blake Ballin, a lawyer for Mills, said that he and Mills would analyze the recordings “at the proper time” after they were made public on Friday.
“A thorough investigation of all available angles is needed before providing context or comment,” Ballin said. “My heart goes out to the Nichols family and the entire city of Memphis.”
Mills and Martin’s attorneys stated that their clients intend to enter a not-guilty plea. Uncertainty surrounded the other parties’ legal representation.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Friday night, the Memphis Police Association stated that it was dedicated to “the administration of justice” and that it did not support any treatment of civilians unfairly.
“We have faith in the Criminal Justice System. That faith is what we will lean on in the coming days, weeks, and months to ensure the totality of circumstances is revealed,” the statement added.
According to the family’s attorneys, preliminary results of an autopsy performed by a forensic pathologist for Nichols’ family show that he was severely battered before he passed away. No official cause of death is listed by the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s office.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into Nichols’ case, and the US Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation following the traffic stop.
Investigations into member behavior are also being conducted by other Tennessee agencies connected to the events on January 7.
According to Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr., two Shelby County sheriff’s officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the conclusion of an investigation.
Memphis officials found no evidence to back up police claims that #TyreNichols was driving recklessly before being pulled over, per the police chief.
Nichols died 3 days after police beat and tased him.
Officials say they will release bodycam video of his arrest Friday evening. pic.twitter.com/47aiu36QEb
— AJ+ (@ajplus) January 27, 2023
“I have concerns about two deputies who appeared on the scene following the physical confrontation between police and Tyre Nichols,” Bonner, who said he first saw the videos Friday, said in a statement.
He said they would not return to work until an internal inquiry into what happened and whether any rules were breached has been completed.
The footage was not fully accessible to the Memphis Fire Department until Friday, according to their statement.
“The department is currently reviewing the footage and will be concluding our internal investigation early next week,” the fire department said.
Two Memphis Fire Department employees who were engaged in Nichols’ “initial patient care,” according to a department spokeswoman, were “relieved of duty” amid an internal inquiry into his passing, the spokesperson said on Monday.
Mulroy, the Shelby County District Attorney, said in a statement Friday night that the video’s release was delayed so witnesses could speak “first from their memory and nothing else.”
“I hope this tragedy can lead to a broader conversation on police reform,” he said.
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