MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The city of Memphis released nearly an hour of graphic video Friday evening showing the beating of Tyre Nichols, footage capturing the blow by blow of a traffic stop that spiraled into a savage display of force, once again leaving an American city reeling from police violence.
The video — which includes numerous angles from police body-camera footage — shows the moments leading up to Nichols’ Jan. 7 arrest, which stemmed from a traffic stop, as well as the violent encounter between Nichols and police.
The footage formed the basis of murder charges that were filed Thursday against five Memphis police officers from the department’s now-embattled “SCORPION” unit.
Before the footage was released Friday, the family of Tyre Nichols called for peaceful protests.
RowVaughn Wells — Nichols’ mother — made the plea at a candlelight vigil Thursday and at a Friday news conference in honor of her 29-year-old son, who died Jan. 10 after a violent arrest by police that left him in the hospital.
“When that tape comes out (Friday), it’s going to be horrific. But I want each and every one of you to protest in peace. If you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully,” Wells said at the vigil Thursday night.
“We want peace. We do not want any type of uproar, any type of disturbance. That’s what (the) family wants that’s what (the) community wants. Please, please, protest, but protest safely,” said Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, at Friday’s news conference.
The video has been compared by lawyers for the Nichols family to the 1991 Rodney King beating — but in higher definition. It compiles numerous forms of video, including body-camera footage and pole camera images, according to Shelby County District Attorney Steven Mulroy.
Wearing a Memphis Grizzlies fitted cap, Wells told reporters Friday that his family was “satisfied” with how swiftly the officers involved were charged.
“We’re very satisfied with the charges,” he said in a gravelly baritone.
He spoke at a news conference in the airy Mt. Olive Cathedral Christian Methodist Episcopal Church on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, a prominent street in downtown Memphis on which King marched with striking sanitation workers days before his assassination in 1968. Nichols’ mother said she couldn’t bring herself to watch the video, but that she heard it was “very, very horrific.”
“And any of you who have children, please don’t let them see it,” she said.
Still, the family repeated its call for peaceful protests after the video’s release.
“I want to say to the five police officers that murdered my son, you also disgraced your own families when you did this. I’m going to pray for you and your families,” she said, tearing up on the stage of the church.
The five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith — were released from the Shelby County Jail early Friday morning, according to jail records. Attorney Blake Ballin, who represents Mills, confirmed his client’s release on $250,000 bail.
The police encounter occurred Jan. 7, when Nichols was pulled over on suspicion of disobeying traffic laws, according to Memphis police.
Nichols was returning home from Shelby Farms, a public park in Memphis where he enjoyed watching the sunset and taking photos, according to his mother.
Officers had an initial encounter with Nichols beside his car, where he was pepper-sprayed, said family attorney Antonio Romanucci, who has seen the video.
Nichols then fled from his vehicle on foot and was chased by officers, according to police and Romanucci.
Police then delivered a “savage” beating to the young father as he screamed, “What did I do?” and called for his mother, who lived just down the street from the scene.
“This one people would consider more violent, more shocking (than the George Floyd video) and certainly very much like Rodney King. They were defenseless,” Romanucci said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
The anticipated release of the video put the Police Department in Memphis — as well as departments across the country — on notice for a possible outbreak of protests.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman said the agency was prepared for protests and had “contingency” plans that are always in place, but said that no “special preparations” were being made for the release of the video.
New York City police were also preparing for protests, with cops asked to sty on duty at the end of their shifts, according to the New York Daily News.
“My message to New Yorkers is to respect the wishes of Mr. Nichols’ mother,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said. “If you need to express outrage, do so peacefully.”
But activists on the ground in Memphis expressed frustration with speculation that the city will erupt in chaos after the release of the video, saying the brutal imagery should instead spark questions about the policing culture fostered by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and police Chief Cerelyn Davis.
“I think my biggest quarrel with messaging is this anticipation for a riot versus the hard questions that should be asked to the mayor and the police chief,” said Keedran Franklin, the co-founder of the Memphis Coalition of Concerned Citizens who also organizes with the national group Black Men Build.
“No one has ever seen Memphis go up in flames. We’ve had major protests here,” Franklin said. “We don’t get violent.”
As the day progressed Friday, businesses in downtown Memphis mostly remained open, though a few stores were closing early in light of the video’s release. Diners ate at restaurants, and a few shops were boarded up.
The death of Nichols comes after the Memphis Police Department, like many nationwide, enacted reforms following the murder of Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.
Memphis police adopted reforms such as requiring its officers to intervene if they witnessed misconduct or excessive force by their colleagues — following a model set by a nationwide police reform initiative called 8 Can’t Wait, according to UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz, who studies police accountability.
Based on the descriptions of the Nichols beating by those who have watched the body cam footage, protests are likely to break out, and the country could be “headed into another moment of reckoning just a few years after George Floyd’s murder,” Schwartz said.
She said she was surprised by the speed with which the officers involved were fired and charged, calling it “very unusual for these kind of cases. Officers are really rarely disciplined, or even more rarely, criminally prosecuted.”
“The Police Department is acting uncharacteristically for any law enforcement agency, uncharacteristically quickly, to have fired the officers,” Schwartz said.
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(Times staff writer Jany reported from Memphis. Staff writers Goldberg and Queally reported from Los Angeles.)
