Memphis police release Tyre Nichols video

Video of five Memphis police officers punching and kicking Tire Nichols, a 29-year-old black man who died after a police stop on traffic on Jan. 7 turned into a brutal beating. released Friday by the city of Memphis. Multiple video clips show police kicking Nichols in the head, beating him with a baton, and punching him while restraining him – ultimately resulting in his death at St. Francis Hospital on January 10.

The city released the video – more than an hour of footage in total between the four clips – at 19:00 GMT on Friday. Three clips were taken from body cameras and included sound, while one silent clip came from a lamppost camera.

Although one of the videos shows the moments before the beating, the video does not show Nichols driving erratically, the reason police pulled him over in the first place. Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis later told NBC that her department could not substantiate the claims.

Five police officers, all of whom are Black and all of whom have been fired, were charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression on Thursday; if found guilty, they each face up to 60 years in prison for the murder charge alone.

Officers said they did not film the initial encounter with Nichols, and that the footage began after officers had pulled Nichols out of the car and backup had arrived on the scene. The officers appeared to Taser Nichols, as he freed himself and ran from the officers. After a brief chase, officers tasered Nichols before subduing him.

All five officers belong to the Memphis Police Department’s SCORPION Unit, which was created in 2021 and is designed to saturate high-crime areas with police officers; The name of the unit is short for Street Crime Operation to restore peace in our neighborhood. The program was suspended after Nichols’ death, the Washington Post reports.

Disturbing video footage sometimes shows officers restraining Nichols as officers kick him in the torso and upper head, beat him with a police baton, and punch him. At that point, Nichols staggers or tries to stand up and scream for his mother. In one video, an officer said he was going to “break” Nichols; The video footage also shows officers speculating that Nichols was high during the encounter. No drugs were found in Nichols’ car, according to officials at the scene, and police claims that Nichols reached for one of the officers’ guns while trying to flee were also not supported by video evidence.

Preliminary police statement from January 8 described the beating only as a “confrontation” and did not mention the violence Nichols suffered at the hands of the police, but included details that the officers involved were relieved of duty and that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation handled this case. .

One video also shows Nichols waiting more than 20 minutes to be transported to a nearby hospital, slumped and propped up next to a police car. According to the autopsy report, Nichols “suffered profuse bleeding from the severe beating.”

Protests — mostly peaceful, as requested by Nichols’ mother RowVaughn Wells and stepfather Rodney Wells — erupted in cities across the country after the video was released. “I don’t want us burning cities, tearing up streets, because it’s not my son,” Nichols’ mother said Thursday in anticipation of the tape being made public, according to NPR. In Memphis, protesters blocked the I-55 bridge, which connects Memphis and West Memphis and crosses the Mississippi River.

In addition to his mother and stepfather, Nichols leaves behind his 4-year-old son, as well as the skateboarding community and friends in his hometown of Sacramento. Nichols is an avid photographer, the Associated Press reports; the evening he was stopped and beaten by police, Nichols was driving home from photographing the sky at a local park. Nichols arrived in Memphis on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic and ended up staying with his mother and father; he was less than 100 meters from his house when he was beaten by the police.

Nichols can be heard on the video trying to defuse the situation and return to his family’s home, telling officers, “I’m just trying to get home.”