The youth’s death was immediately compared with the killing of George Floyd in May 2020
Washington:
It sounds like a garden-variety arrest for a traffic violation at first. But police video released Friday of the fatal beating of Tyra Nichols by Memphis police officers shows Black, 29, being kicked and kneed as he becomes weakened from the beating.
Bodycam footage shows Nicholls on the ground, shouting three times: “Mom!” as the officers punch and kick him in the face. He died three days later on 10 January in the hospital.
The longest of the four videos was from an overhead camera mounted on a power pole in a southern US city. It lasts for 31 minutes and has no sound.
Two minutes in, police officers appear, pinning Nichols to the ground. As someone kneels on his torso, the other officer kicks him repeatedly.
The officers are seen taking several kicks to Nichols’ face. After repeated strikes, the officers lift Nichols to a standing position until he collapses on the asphalt—up to beating him with their fists until they deliver two more kicks to his face. Let’s pick up
He lay on his face on the ground. An officer pulls him onto a cruiser and places him in a sitting position.
Minutes pass with Nichols in obvious agony. Find about at least six officers. A flashlight shines on Nicholas, although the scene is fairly well lit by street lights.
In an extended segment, Nichols’s fallen body lies on the ground in front of a police car, his head resting on his chest and legs in front of it. His upper half repeatedly falls to the ground – only to be stepped on again by the police in attendance.
More officers show up. They circle the mill, the scene, waiting for emergency medical technicians to show up.
There is no clear moment when it becomes clear that the assault against Nikolas will cost him his life.
The other three videos released by the Memphis Police Department were taken from the officers’ chest cameras and offer different perspectives.
In one, officers capture Nichols after a foot chase. Many officers are tired.
Nichols is on the ground. “I didn’t do anything,” Nichols gasps. “You don’t do that, okay?”
“get on the ground!” an official order.
In another dramatic video, officers fired a Taser at Nichols but he fled. The police caught him while abusing.
An officer pepper-sprayed Nichols while subduing him.
A fourth video features scenes from the officers who were left behind after Nichols made his escape.
An officer speaks by radio to a police dispatcher: “Young black male, slim build, blue jeans and a hoodie.”
The officers feed each other water from a water bottle. One is bent over in exhaustion, his hands on his knees. Another appears to have reeled the wire from the Taser fired onto its spool back at Nichols.
“I got my glasses,” says an officer, breathing heavily. Footage later shows him picking up his glasses from the road where they had fallen.
Addressing an emotional press conference earlier on Friday, the victim’s mother, Rowan Wells, called out the officers who she said “beaten her son to a pulp,” telling them: “When you did that you destroyed your own families. slandered.”
President Joe Biden, who has joined local officials in calling for the protests to remain peaceful, expressed his condolences to Wells on Friday and commended “the family’s courage and strength.”
The man’s mother was “obviously in enormous pain”, Biden said, adding that he had “made a very strong plea” for peaceful protests.
The father of a four-year-old son, Nichols worked for FedEx, loved skateboarding and taking pictures, and had his mother’s name tattooed on his arm.
“My heart is broken,” Wells said at the news conference. “For a mother to know that her child was calling her in their need, and I wasn’t there for them.”
“My son was a beautiful soul,” Wells said. “He was a good guy. Nobody’s perfect. But he was pretty close to it.”
Memphis Police Chief Cerelin Davis compared the video to footage of the 1991 Rodney King beating that sparked days of rioting in Los Angeles that left dozens dead.
“I was in law enforcement during the Rodney King incident, it’s very consistent with the same type of behavior,” Davis said. “I’d say it’s about the same, if not worse.”
– police brutality –
Nichols’ mother has accused police of initially trying to cover up her son’s beating, saying he was arrested for drunk driving and after being pepper sprayed and handcuffed.
The youth’s death drew immediate comparisons with the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, another black man who was caught on film suffocating by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The video of Floyd’s death spread quickly, sparking a massive wave of at times violent protests across the country and beyond, and rekindling an investigation into race relations and a culture of police brutality in the United States.
Police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder after kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly 10 minutes, in what was seen as a landmark case.
At a Memphis skate park where Nichols was a local, flowers and candles were placed next to signs demanding “Justice for Justice”.
Robert Walters, a 67-year-old blues musician visiting the city from Virginia, said he and his wife would return home early to avoid any violence.
“I’m a black man living in America. And that fear is always something that me and my son, we grew up with and live with,” he told AFP in reference to police brutality.
The officers involved in the fatal beating of Nichols were taken into custody after a quick internal investigation found they used excessive force and failed to render aid.
In addition to second-degree murder charges, the officers also face charges of aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping.
Citing prison records, US media reported on Friday that four of the five were released from prison after posting bail.
The fact that the officers themselves were Black “hurts,” Walters said.
“These people, you would think, should know (better) about anyone, but it just goes to show you that anyone can fall into that trap,” he said.
“All I want is for people to stay calm and not do anything stupid, destroy or hurt.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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