In May 2020, a Black man, identified as George Floyd, was murdered during an arrest by white officer Derek Chauvin in America’s South Minneapolis. The death, triggered the #BlackLivesMatter movement and protests across the US and the world over police brutality and racism in law enforcement.
Now, three years later, the American city of Memphis is on edge again after five police officers have been charged with murder in the beating of a 29-year-old Black man, Tyre Nichols, on 7 January.
Memphis is now waiting for the release of video footage of the stop, which city officials have vowed to make public.
From who exactly is Tyre Nichols to why he was arrested and the investigation against the five cops — we bring you all that we know of this case, which once again renews attention to the use of excessive force against people, especially against young, Black men.
Tyre Nichols and the traffic stop
Twenty-nine year old Tyre Nichols was a resident of Memphis in the state of Tennessee. A father of a four-year-old son, Nichols enjoyed photographing sunsets and skateboarding.
According to his mother, Nichols worked the second shift at a FedEx facility and every evening he would visit his mother’s house for his “lunch” break. He would visit the same Starbucks most mornings and often went to Shelby Farms, a sprawling public park just outside Memphis to skate or indulge in photography.
According to his mother, 29-year-old Tyre Nichols enjoyed photographing sunsets and skateboarding. Reuters
His mother said that Nichols had her name tattooed on his arm. “That made me proud,” she told the New York Times. “Most kids don’t put their mom’s name. My son was a beautiful soul.”
On 7 January, approximately 8:30 pm, officers pulled over a vehicle for suspected reckless driving, according to a statement from Memphis police.
According to the police’s version of events, a confrontation took place between the police officers and the vehicle’s driver, who then fled on foot. When the officers caught him, another confrontation occurred, following which the man, later identified as Tyre Nichols, was arrested.
The police said they called an ambulance to the scene of arrest after Nichols complained of shortness of breath and he was transported to a nearby hospital in a critical condition. Three days later, on 10 January, it was announced that Nichols had died due to injuries sustained in the “use-of-force incident with the officers”.
Investigations in Nichols’ death
On 15 January, the Memphis Police Department announced that an internal administrative investigation was underway. In the meantime, Nichols’ family retained prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump in the matter. Interestingly, Crump has represented families of several Black victims of police violence, including Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Crump and Nichols family have demanded that the police release the body camera footage of the encounter, saying as per a New York Times report, “Nobody should ever die from a simple traffic stop — the footage is the only way to discern the true narrative of why and how that happened to Tyre.”
On 20 January, the five Black officers – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr and Justin Smith — were fired after an investigation revealed that they had used excessive force and even failed to ‘render aid’.
This combo of images provided by the Memphis Police Department shows, from top row from left, officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, bottom row, from left, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith. The five former have been charged with second-degree murder. AP
An autopsy also found Nichols had suffered “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating”.
Earlier this week, the family was shown the footage from the traffic stop, which they described as “savage”.
Fellow attorney Antonio Romanucci said that the footage showed the officers pepper-spraying Nichols, deploying a stun gun against him and then restraining him. “He was a human pi?ata for those police officers,” Romanucci told reporters. “Not only was it violent, it was savage.”
“It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes,” Romanucci said at a news conference, per CNN.
The family’s legal team said that during the encounter, Nichols repeatedly called for his mother and said he simply wanted to go home.
“His mother couldn’t get through the first minute of it,” Ben Crump added in the news conference. “What we can tell you about the video is that it is appalling, it is deplorable, it is heinous.”
Nichols’s stepfather, Rodney Wells, said during the press conference that “what I saw on the video today was horrific”.
“No father, mother should have to witness what I saw today,” he added.
Cops charged with second-degree murder
On 26 January, the Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said that although all five officers –Bean, Haley, Martin III, Mills Jr and Smith — played different roles in the killing, they were all responsible and hence, were being charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
If found guilty, second-degree murder carries a jail term of 15 to 60 years in prison under Tennessee law.
Memphis police chief Cerelyn Davis reacting to the incident said, This is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual … and in the vein of transparency when the video is released in the coming days, you will see this for yourselves.”
She added that the officers were “directly responsible” for the “physical abuse” of Nichols, calling the officers’ actions “heinous, reckless, and inhumane”.
People attend a vigil in memory of Tyre Nichols at the Tobey Skate Park in Memphis, Tennessee. AFP
Meanwhile, well-known civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, who will be giving the eulogy at Nichols’ funeral on 1 February welcomed the charges, saying, “There is no point to putting a body camera on a cop if you aren’t going to hold them accountable when the footage shows them relentlessly beating a man to death.”
President Joe Biden also urged people to remain peaceful hours ahead of the bodycam footage being released to the public. “As Americans grieve, the Department of Justice conducts its investigation, and state authorities continue their work, I join Tyre’s family in calling for peaceful protest,” Biden said in a statement. “Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable. Violence is destructive and against the law. It has no place in peaceful protests seeking justice.”
He added, “Public trust is the foundation of public safety and there are still too many places in America today where the bonds of trust are frayed or broken. Tyre’s death is a painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all.”
With inputs from agencies
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