Officers can be seen kicking him, pepper spraying him and using a Taser.
The authorities of Memphis, in the state of Tennessee, United States, published this Friday a series of videos showing the violent arrest of Tire Nichols, the 29-year-old black driver who died after suffering a brutal beating by five police officers. .
Nichols died on January 10 in a hospital, three days after the vehement clash he had with five officers who tried to stop him for a traffic violation. For their part, Tadarrius Bean, Justin Smith, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III were charged with murder, assault, battery and kidnapping.
The most graphic video is the one captured by a security camera located on top of a light pole. From above, you can see how the policemen gave him kickssome of them in the head, fist bumps and even with a baton.
Another of the recordings corresponds to the body cameras that the agents wore on their chests. It is observed how they take Nichols out of his vehicle and try to pin him to the ground, until he manages to break free and runs away.
At that moment, the agents request reinforcements to search for the young African-American. In another video Nichols appears when he is finally captured by the agents, who beat him several times with force. They also use pepper spray and a taser.
“I’m just trying to get home,” “mom, mom” and “give me a minute” are some of the cries that the man yells. His house was just over 90 meters from the place. In that same recording, the agents are heard insulting the detainee. as the victim yells “mom, mom” and “give me a minute.”
In this context, the attorney general of the United States, Merrick Garland, promised this Friday that there will be an investigation into the death of Nichols and asked that any protests that there may be about this event be peaceful.
Biden called for a “prompt, full and transparent investigation”
President Joe Biden released a statement on Thursday calling for a “fast, complete and transparent investigation” of the case.
The president also added that violence “should have no place among peaceful protests,” while acknowledging that police killings affect black communities “disparately.”
He also stated that he will ask Congress to pass a police reform billnamed in memory of George Floyd, who was deadlocked in the Senate during his first year in office.
an unclear incident
The details of what happened are still not entirely clear. It is known that Nichols was stopped when he was driving through an area in southeast Memphis. The officers who arrested him were part of the Scorpion Unit, a group of specialized agents created in 2021 to work in neighborhoods where crime and violence are endemic.
In their first official statement on the case, police said “a confrontation” ensued as officers approached Nichols’ car, and the driver apparently sped away. According to the statement, there was “another confrontation” when the police managed to detain Nichols.
The report was completed with the information that, at one point, Nichols complained that he could not breathe. It was at that point that an ambulance would have been called to take the man to the hospital.
Crump, one of the family’s lawyers, said video showed Nichols being restrained, pepper sprayed and shocked with a taser when he was stopped near his home. He was coming back to his house from a park where he had gone to take pictures of the sunset.
Nichols’s family have shown photos of the man admitted to hospital, on a respirator and his face swollen and bruised. According to relatives, “the police beat him to the point where he was not recognizable.”
“It was a non-stop beating, pure and simple, that lasted for three minutes,” said Antonio Romanucci, one of the family’s lawyers. Nichols died three days after the confrontation with the police.