Tire Nichols was just yards from his mother’s home in Memphis when he was caught in a fatal traffic stop. The FedEx employee was pulled over by five police officers at around 8:30 p.m. on January 7 for reckless driving. The scrutiny escalated into a violent altercation that ended with Nichols being hospitalized in critical condition. Three days later he was dead.
The family released photos showing the young man lying in a hospital bed with swelling and bruises all over his face – hooked up to a ventilator. “The brutality of it all, that’s the most shocking thing,” Nichols’ stepfather said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “It was just so brutal. He didn’t deserve it.” Video of the incident has not yet been released, but was shown Monday with the family in the presence of their attorneys and the Memphis Police Department. It is scheduled to be released in the coming weeks. “We are working with the district attorney’s office to determine the appropriate timing for the release of the video footage,” said Police Commissioner Cerelyn Davis.
The police officers, who, like the victim, are African American, have since been fired. For “excessive use of force” and for failing to intervene and provide assistance, which is against regulations. “The egregious nature of this incident does not reflect the good work our officers do with integrity every day,” the police chief said. The Justice Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are conducting separate investigations into the arrest.
According to The Washington Post and The New York Times, Nichols was an amateur photographer and a skateboarder who, like his stepfather, worked the afternoon and evening shifts at FedEx. According to the family’s lawyers, they regularly came home in the evening during their lunch break to eat a meal that Nichols’ mother cooked at home.
The police said the day after the incident that there was a “confrontation” at the checkpoint that evening and the driver fled on foot.
When trying to take the man into custody, there was another “confrontation”. Details were not given. Eventually he was arrested, but later complained of shortness of breath, whereupon an ambulance was called. Nichols, who has a four-year-old son, died from his injuries at a hospital.
Lawyers for the family said police officers kicked, punched and tased him for three minutes. This is evident from the video recordings. According to his family, he died of kidney failure and cardiac arrest.
“What I saw on video today was appalling. No father or mother should see what we had to see today,” his stepfather said, adding that the family would like the police officers to be charged with first-degree murder . “We will not accept anything below that. “He was defenseless. The whole time. He was a human piñata to these police officers,” one of the lawyers describes the incident. A piñata is usually a papier-mâché figure filled with candy that kids at birthday parties bang on with sticks until it breaks.
The city administration has promised transparency on the matter. Although the footage of the operation is to be released, the timing of this remains unclear. It could take at least another week, according to family lawyers. The family has urged the community to give police time to complete their investigation.
See the video: On Monday, a man died in Mannheim after a police check. The 47-year-old collapsed after two police officers beat him.
Sources: Police Twitter, Press Conference on Youtube, Washington Post, New York Times, Memphis City Council
