Tyre Nichols

Several police officers involved in Nichols' arrest were part of Memphis' specialized unit assigned with addressing violent crime, although officers said ...

[released the footage](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/01/27/tyre-nichols-video-footage-released-of-violent-arrest-in-memphis/?sh=5ab762832d8e) of Nichols’ violent arrest Friday night, revealing what prosecutors argue was a deadly police beating, and what Davis [described](https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1618945605560315905?s=20&t=L3bzOjGh_7s6P3cqHkY7Hg) as “heinous,” a defiance of “humanity,” and “about the same, if not worse” than the violent 1991 police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles that prompted riots. Before the footage was made public, Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, [Tyre Nichols’ Killing: What We Know About The Investigation Into Memphis Police Officers](https://www.forbes.com/video/6319313900112/tyre-nichols-killing-what-we-know-about-the-investigation-into-memphis-police-officers/?sh=24d9d54ad06b) (Forbes) [Tyre Nichols’ Killing: 5 Memphis Police Officers Charged With Murder](https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywashburn/2023/01/26/tyre-nichols-killing-5-memphis-police-officers-charged-with-murder/?sh=48b9c0ea22b5) (Forbes) [Tyre Nichols Video: Footage Released Of Violent Arrest In Memphis](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/01/27/tyre-nichols-video-footage-released-of-violent-arrest-in-memphis/?sh=68d9b41f2d8e) (Forbes) and Justin Smith—were “ [directly responsible](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpD2FDjBBr8)” for Nichols’ death. The five officers involved, who are also Black, were [charged](https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywashburn/2023/01/26/tyre-nichols-killing-5-memphis-police-officers-charged-with-murder/?sh=6a0d26a222b5) with second-degree murder on Thursday, after being fired by the Memphis Police Department last week, following multiple investigations into the arrest. What happened before the body cameras started? Why were five police officers involved in a routine traffic stop? [urged](https://www.cbsnews.com/video/tyre-nichols-mother-asks-protesters-to-be-peaceful-when-bodycam-footage-is-released/) people to “protest in peace” upon the release of the video, saying it would be “horrific.” President Joe Biden made a similar [warning](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/26/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-the-tyre-nichols-case/) in a statement on Thursday, saying, “outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable.” FBI Director Christopher Wray had also [alerted FBI field officers](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2023/01/27/fbi-chief-appalled-at-violent-video-of-tyre-nichols-arrest-ahead-of-public-release/?sh=39a759486fb4) to prepare for the possibility of protests “getting out of hand,” after he saw the video, saying he was “appalled” by what he saw. Why was a special unit involved? Why did it turn violent? Nichols died of excessive blood loss at a Memphis hospital on January 10, three days after he was pulled over in what police said was a routine traffic stop. [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/28/us/tyre-nichols-beating-video-takeaways/index.html) law enforcement analyst John Miller described the situation as a failure of police officers to use “arrest and control tactics” and resorting to “brutality”—with Nichols heard telling officers he was “just trying to get home” as he ran from police, before they catch up with him, throwing kicks and punches, and using pepper spray.

Nichols was an avid skateboarder from Sacramento, California, and came to Memphis just before the coronavirus pandemic and got stuck.

Jang said Nichols was so moved by it that he pulled out his flip phone and dropped it in a cup of water. His website, called This California Kid, starts with an invitation: “Welcome to the world through my eyes.” Afterwards, Spates said his wife commented, “He’s got such a good spirit and soul and calm presence.” He was just a few minutes from the home he shared with his mother and stepfather, when he was The two hadn’t seen each other in awhile, but Jang said Nichols came up behind him and gave him a big hug as the two caught up. “What drew me to Tyre was just — he’s real,” Curtis Chapman said. But he was damn near,” his mother, RowVaughn Wells, said at a news conference this week, moments after she watched the video of her son being beaten. But when Niko Chapman was 10 years old, his parents would let him walk to the park alone as long as they knew Nichols was there. “He just always made me feel really welcome.” Nichols, a 29-year-old father, was on his way home from taking pictures of the sky on Jan. He preferred landscapes and loved the glow of sunsets most, his family has said. “People have a story to tell, why not capture it.”

The death of Nichols, 29, after being beaten by police in Memphis, Tennessee, during a traffic stop has prompted outrage.

[officers are charged](https://apnews.com/article/tyre-nichols-police-officers-charged-48d48f2137a2f34482274edb1bd1bab2) with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush said that Congress must take action, arguing “charging the officers who brutalized Tyre is not enough”. Memphis police claimed in a statement that officers tried to stop a man for reckless driving on 7 January and he was brought to hospital in critical condition following two confrontations. Five Black officers involved in the incident were fired and [charged](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/26/tyre-nichols-five-ex-police-officers-custody) Thursday with murder. [Tyre Nichols](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/26/memphis-police-tyre-nichols-death-what-we-know), a Black man, died several days after Memphis, Tennessee police repeatedly beat him following a 7 January traffic stop. 26 January They describe the footage as showing a “savage” three-minute interaction that recalled the notorious 1991 police beating of Black Los Angeles driver Rodney King. They tell media that Nichols was restrained, pepper-sprayed, and “was a human piñata for those police officers”. Nichols’ stepfather, Rodney Wells, told reporters that his stepson suffered kidney failure and cardiac arrest because of the beatdown. All of these officers are Black. After the officers drag Nichols out of his car, and position him against the ground, he gets up and runs away. 7 January

Move follows release of video which has renewed criticism of American policing tactics.

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The so-called Scorpion special unit will be disbanded after its officers were seen beating Mr Nichols.

The Scorpion programme was touted by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland in a speech a year ago. If the system is broken, she added, the only way to fix it is to start again. "Memphis is taking a stand," said Casio Montez, one of the protest organisers. But she acknowledged that the officers who brutally beat Tyre Nichols "decided to go off the rails". He died in hospital three days later, on 10 January. "We are doing an individual evaluation of all units," she said.

Many in the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated over five decades ago are struggling to understand how five Black officers could be behind ...

“But I started noticing that the Black officers are more aggressive than the White officers.” That feeling, however, does not extend to the Black police officers who monitor his city streets. “When the police don’t set an example, and follow rules and regulations, how can they expect the people that live in the city to follow the rules and regulations?” Johnson said. The 37-year-old, born in Memphis, wanted to work for the civil rights museum in part to learn more about history. That looks gang related and looks just like what the little kids are doing these days.” The Memphis police department announced they were [disbanding ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/28/tyre-nichols-memphis-video/?itid=lk_inline_manual_32)it Saturday afternoon. Willie Moore, 74, and one of Memphis’s best-known Black business owners, said when he was a young man, Black police officers in Memphis were not allowed to carry weapons in White neighborhoods or arrest White residents suspected of committing crimes. [Scorpion](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/27/scorpion-tyre-nichols-memphis-death/?itid=lk_inline_manual_32), which was created in late 2021 with the goal of increasing police presence in high-crime neighborhoods at a time when homicides were surging in the city. “The real reason people disrespect Black people, is that they don’t have no power,” Moore said. [1971](https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/local/elton-hayes-to-tyre-nichols-history-of-police-brutality-and-reform-mpd/522-4dd45adf-3f10-46f4-a33f-43a3c32cbef6), a 17-year-old Black man was fatally beaten by Memphis police officers and Shelby County Sheriff deputies after a high-speed chase. Others noted that progress in diversifying Memphis’s police department hasn’t translated into better relationships with the communities they patrol. Officials across the country braced for violence after police released footage Friday of the five officers — who have been charged with second-degree murder — brutally beating Nichols, 29 years old and unarmed.

As public officials and others condemned the actions they viewed, initial reactions from protesters around the country were largely peaceful.

“I can’t believe no one thought ‘we don’t have to keep beating this man.,’” Nino Brown, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, said at a vigil for Mr. Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the video filled him with “anger, sorrow and revulsion,” Kathy Lester, the city’s police chief, called the actions of the Memphis officers “inhumane and inexcusable,” and the Sacramento County sheriff, Jim Cooper, said the “horrendous acts displayed by these few officers do not reflect the values of this office or law enforcement as a whole.” In Memphis, for days before the video release, city officials, civic leaders and Mr. “That faith is what we will lean on in the coming days, weeks and months to ensure the totality of circumstances is revealed.” On Saturday, officials with the Memphis Police announced that the department was deactivating the unit. As police departments around the country responded, law enforcement officials said actions shown in the video defied what officers are trained to do. “The video is all the horrific things that were described to us,” said Josh Spickler, the executive director of Just City, a civil rights organization in Memphis, referring to days of warnings from law enforcement officials and Mr. Mills, said in a statement that the videos have “produced as many questions as they have answers.” The officers, according to the video, escalated their use of physical force and gave conflicting orders, repeatedly demanding that Mr. Separately, the Memphis Fire Department said that two of its employees were also being investigated for their actions at the scene. and Justin Smith — had been fired from the Memphis Police Department after an internal investigation found they had used excessive force and failed to intervene or render aid, as the agency’s policy required them to do. Officials said minor acts of vandalism were committed during a protest outside the Los Angeles Police Department’s headquarters, which was blocked by police in riot gear.

The Scorpion unit has been deactivated after video was released of the brutal beating of the 29-year-old at the hands of officers.

“It is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the Scorpion unit,” she said in a statement. It had been inactive since Nichols’ 7 January arrest. The Scorpion unit is composed of three teams of about 30 officers whose stated aim is to target violent offenders in areas beset by high crime.

The five Memphis Police Department officers involved in the arrest have been fired and charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.

An officer then punches him in the face, as the officer with the baton continues to menace him. In one of the videos, an officer claims that during the initial traffic stop Nichols reached for the officer's gun before fleeing and almost had his hand on the handle, which is not shown in the video. As Nichols is slumped up against a car, not one of the officers renders aid. After Nichols is in handcuffs and leaning against a police car, several officers say that he must have been high. The officer strikes Nichols on the back with the baton three times in a row. The officer said that when Nichols pulled up to a red light, the officers jumped out of the car. Nichols slumps more fully onto the pavement with all three officers surrounding him. The officer who punched him then walks around to Nichols’ front and punches him four more times. Other officers are called, and a search ensues before Nichols is caught at another intersection. Nichols can then be seen running as an officer fires a Taser at him. The recording shows police savagely beating Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx worker, for three minutes while screaming profanities at him throughout the attack. Demonstrators at times blocked traffic while chanting slogans and marching through the streets of New York City, Los Angeles, California, and Portland, Oregon.

Protesters once again took to the streets to decry police brutality over the weekend after the release of video depicting the violent Memphis police beating ...

The online frundraiser was created by Nichols’ mother and reads in part: “My baby was just trying to make it home to be safe in my arms. He was a “good boy” who spent his Sundays doing laundry and getting ready for the week, his mother said. Tyre was unarmed, nonthreatening, and respectful to police during the entire encounter!” [SCORPION unit](https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/tyre-nichols-memphis-news-1-28-23/h_8f07e0604d95b0cdbdce2a2f89f89838), Memphis police spokesperson Maj. “We have to fight the bad players in our community, and now we’ve got to fight our own police officers. If a dog in this county was beaten like that, what the hell would happen?” Towns said. Hardaway, who represents a portion of Memphis and Shelby County. The bills will seek to address mental health care for law enforcement officers, hiring, training, discipline practices and other topics, said Rep. [ relatively swift](http://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/us/tyre-nichols-timeline-investigation/index.html). He applauded Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis for arresting and charging the officers within 20 days. “To see the events unfold how they’ve unfolded, with this Tyre Nichols situation, is heartbreaking. The [unit they were part of was disbanded](https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/28/us/tyre-nichols-protests-saturday/index.html), and state lawmakers representing the Memphis area began planning police reform bills.

Joe Mazzulla took time before the game to speak on Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old who was senselessly beaten by five Memphis police officers during a Jan. 7...

I pray for their family in real prayer, just praying for their grief and for their understanding of the situation, and to open up my heart. "So our Celtics organization grieves for that and we pray for that. The five Memphis police officers responsible for Nichols' death have been fired, arrested, and charged for the brutal beating. And so I just wanted to share that." "On behalf of the Celtics, and my family in particular, I want to pray for Tyre Nichols' soul," Mazzulla said. Mazzulla took time before the game to speak on Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old who was senselessly beaten by five Memphis police officers during a Jan.

Mr. Nichols's family and activists had demanded the scuttling of the group, the Scorpion unit, which patrolled high-crime areas of the city.

Mr. All of the officers, who are also Black, were fired after an internal investigation found they had used excessive force and had failed to intervene or render aid, as the agency’s policy required them to do. Mom!