‘You disgraced your own families’
Protests against the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols were peaceful.
MEMPHIS, United States (AFP) — Five black police officers charged with second-degree murder for the beating of a 29-year-old man were called a disgraced to their families by the victim’s mother as a video of the brutal assault was released on Friday.
“You disgraced your own families when you did this,” RowVaughn Wells, victim Tyre Nichols’ mother, said in an emotional press conference.
Nichols died in hospital on 10 January, three days after being stopped on suspicion of reckless driving.
The lengthy video footage from police body cameras released by the United States city of Memphis sparked small protests against police brutality in a number of US cities but none that flared into the violence that officials had feared.
The lengthy video footage from police body cameras shows a group of officers detaining Nichols, attempting to take him down with the use of a Taser, then giving chase as he evades them.
Subsequent segments — the footage runs about an hour in total, and is audio-only in parts — show Nichols crying out for his mother, and moaning as officers repeatedly kick and punch him.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis compared the video
to footage of the 1991 Rodney King beating, which sparked days of riots in Los Angeles that left dozens dead.
President Joe Biden, who has joined local officials in calling for protests to remain peaceful, spoke with Wells Friday
to offer his condolences and commend “the family’s courage and strength.”
The slain man’s mother was “obviously in enormous pain,” Biden said, adding that she had “made a very strong plea” for peaceful protests.
The father of a four-year-old son, Nichols worked for FedEx, loved skateboarding and taking photos, and had a tattoo of his mother’s name on his arm. “My heart just breaks,” Wells told the news conference. “For a mother to know that their child was calling them in their need, and I wasn’t there for him.” Protests in Memphis, Washington, New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta and a handful of other cities on Friday evening were small and largely peaceful.
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis compared the video to footage of the 1991 Rodney King beating.
In downtown Memphis, around 50 protesters gathered at the central Martyrs Park to mark the video’s release, later blocking a main road as they marched and chanted “No Justice, No Peace” and “Say His Name: Tyre Nichols.”
The five officers involved in Nichols’s fatal beating were taken into custody following a rapid internal investigation that found them to have used excessive force and to have failed to render aid.
In addition to second-degree murder charges, the officers are facing indictments for aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping.
Four of the five were released from jail after posting bail, US media reported Friday, citing jail records.