Tyre Nichols

The five disgraced Memphis police officers, who are also Black, have been fired and charged with second-degree murder.

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 and Portland, Oregon.

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 29-year-old cried out for his mother during the violent arrest that led to his death, footage shows.

It's just wicked, the system is forever going to be wicked," he said. "You guys are really doing a lot right now," Nichols says to the officers. He worked for the FedEx parcel delivery firm. One protester at the Memphis rally, 21-year-old Kyrion, told the BBC he had dreamed as a child of joining the city's police force, but now that dream was shattered." one officer shouts, as another is heard saying: "Tase him!" Officers demand that he lie down flat.

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.

The Memphis police chief disbanded the city's so-called Scorpion unit on Saturday, citing a “cloud of dishonour” from newly released video that showed some ...

In one, an officer claims that during the initial traffic stop Nichols reached for the officer’s gun and almost had his hand on the handle, something not shown in the video. The officer says that when Nichols pulled up to a red light, the officers jumped out. During the wait for an ambulance, officers joke and air grievances. She also was struck by the immediate aggression from officers as soon as they got out of the car: “It just went to 100 ... She said it was imperative that the department “take proactive steps in the healing process”. She said the officers currently assigned to it agreed “unreservedly”. The attack continues even after he collapses. Nichols calls out for his mother before his limp body is propped against a squad car and the officers exchange fist-bumps. Others are called, and a search ensues before Nichols is caught at another intersection. Police director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis acted a day after the harrowing video emerged, saying she listened to Nichols’ relatives, community leaders and uninvolved officers in making the decision. Several dozen demonstrators in Memphis blocked the Interstate 55 bridge that carries traffic over the Mississippi River toward Arkansas. At the time, she was chief in Durham, North Carolina, and had called for sweeping police reform.

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.

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.”

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 five disgraced Memphis Police Department officers, who are also Black, have been fired and charged with second-degree murder and other crimes relating to ...

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 on to 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 and Portland, Oregon.