Released video shows Tyre Nichols being held down, hit by Memphis police as he screams for his mother
Nichols's death 3 days after altercation prompted murder charges against 5 officers
WARNING: This story contains descriptions of a man being beaten and video of graphic violence and language.
Memphis authorities released more than an hour of footage Friday of the violent beating of Tyre Nichols in which officers held the Black motorist down and struck him repeatedly with fists, baton and boots as he screamed for his mother and pleaded, "I just want to go home."
The video is filled with violent moments showing the officers, who are also Black, chasing and pummelling Nichols, and leaving him on the pavement propped against a squad car as they fist-bumped and celebrated their actions.
The footage emerged one day after the officers were charged with murder in Nichols's death. The chilling images of another Black man dying at the hands of police renewed tough questions about how fatal encounters with law enforcement continue even after repeated calls for change.
Protesters gathered for mostly peaceful demonstrations in multiple cities, including Memphis, where several dozen demonstrators blocked the Interstate 55 bridge that carries traffic over the Mississippi River toward Arkansas. Semi-trucks were backed up for a distance. In Washington, dozens of protesters gathered in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House and near Black Lives Matter Plaza.
Other cities nationwide braced for demonstrations, but media outlets reported only scattered and nonviolent protests. Demonstrators at times blocked traffic while they chanted slogans and marched through the streets of New York City, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore.
The recordings show police savagely beating the 29-year-old FedEx worker for three minutes. Nichols died three days after his Jan. 7 arrest. The Nichols family legal team has likened the assault to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.
After the first officer roughly pulls Nichols out of his car, the motorist can be heard saying, "I didn't do anything," as a group of officers begin to wrestle him to the ground.
One officer is heard yelling, "Tase him! Tase him!"
Nichols calmly says, "OK, I'm on the ground."
"You guys are really doing a lot right now," Nichols says. "I'm just trying to go home."
"Stop, I'm not doing anything," he yells moments later.
Nichols can then be seen running as an officer fires a Taser at him. The officers then start chasing Nichols.
Other officers are called and a search ensues before Nichols is caught at another intersection. The officers beat him with a baton and kick and punch him.
Security camera footage shows three officers surrounding Nichols as he lies in the street, cornered between police cars, with a fourth officer nearby.
Two officers hold Nichols to the ground as he moves about, and then the third appears to kick him in the head. Nichols slumps more fully onto the pavement with all three officers surrounding him. The same officer kicks him again.
The fourth officer then walks over, unfurls a baton and holds it up at shoulder level as two officers hold Nichols upright, as if he were sitting.
"I'm going to baton the f--k out you," one officer can be heard saying. His body camera shows him raise his baton while at least one other officer holds Nichols. The officer strikes Nichols on the back with the baton, before striking him two more times.
The other officers then appear to hoist Nichols to his feet, and he flops like a doll, barely able to stay upright.
An officer then punches him in the face, as the officer with the baton continues to menace him. Nichols stumbles and turns, still held up by two officers. The officer who punched him then walks around to Nichols's front and punches him three more times. Nichols then collapses.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JusticeForTyre?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JusticeForTyre</a> <a href="https://t.co/gYY8AgCVbd">pic.twitter.com/gYY8AgCVbd</a>
—@memgrizzTwo officers can then be seen atop Nichols, on the ground, with a third nearby, for about 40 seconds. Three more officers then run up and one can be seen kicking him.
At one point, as Nichols is slumped up against a car and none of the officers are rendering aid, the body camera footage shows a first-person view of one of them reaching down and tying his shoe.
It takes more than 20 minutes after Nichols is beaten and on the pavement before any sort of medical attention is provided to him, even though two fire department officers arrived on the scene with medical equipment within 10 minutes.
Memphis Police Director Cerelyn Davis described the officers' actions as "heinous, reckless and inhumane," and said that her department has been unable to substantiate the reckless driving allegation that prompted the stop.
She told The Associated Press in an interview that there is no video of the traffic stop that shows Nichols driving recklessly.
During the initial stop, the video shows the officers were "already ramped up, at about a 10," she said. The officers were "aggressive, loud, using profane language and probably scared Mr. Nichols from the very beginning."
Pleas for peaceful protests
Nichols's mother, RowVaughn Wells, warned supporters of the "horrific" nature of the video but pleaded for peace.
"I don't want us burning up our city, tearing up the streets, because that's not what my son stood for," she said Thursday. "If you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully."
Christopher Taylor was one of the protesters at the Interstate 55 bridge on Friday. He said he watched the video. The Memphis native said it was horrible that the officers appeared to be laughing as they stood around after the beating.
"I cried," he said. "And that right there, as not only a father myself but I am also a son, my mother is still living, that could have been me."
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who runs the National Action Network and will deliver the eulogy at Nichols's funeral service next week, called the charges "a necessary step in delivering justice" for Nichols.
"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," Sharpton said. "Firings are not enough. Indictments and arrests are not convictions. As we've done in the past ... we will stand by this family until justice is done."
Speaking at the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday that he was "very concerned" about the prospect of violence and called for protests to remain peaceful.
Biden said he spoke with Nichols's mother earlier in the day and told her that he was going to be "making a case" to Congress to pass the George Floyd Act "to get this under control." The legislation, which has been stalled, is meant to tackle police misconduct and excessive force and boost federal and state accountability efforts.
2 more deputies relieved of duty
Court records showed that all five former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — were taken into custody.
The officers each face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. Four of the five officers had posted bond and been released from custody by Friday morning, according to court and jail records.
Second-degree murder is punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison under Tennessee law.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said in a statement late Friday that two deputies who appeared on the scene after the beating have been relieved of duty pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Patrick Yoes, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, condemned the alleged actions of the Memphis officers.
"The event as described to us does not constitute legitimate police work or a traffic stop gone wrong. This is a criminal assault under the pretext of law," Yoes said in a statement.
As state and federal investigations continue, Davis promised the police department's "full and complete co-operation."