Five former Memphis police officers have been charged with murder following a traffic stop, and video of the incident appears to show them taking turns punching and kicking the driver mercilessly.
Tyre Nichols, 29, is frequently heard pleading with his mother throughout the arrest on January 7 in Memphis.
In the video, police beat the FedEx employee for almost three minutes while yelling foul language.
On Friday night, protests are expected in Memphis and other US cities.
Police initially said Mr. Nichols had been pulled over on the basis of a reckless driving suspect, but this claim has now been refuted. Three days later, on January 10, he passed away in the hospital.
Both Mr. Nichols and the five cops accused in the case are black.
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“Like so many, I was shocked and terribly pained to witness the awful footage of the beating that ended in Tyre Nichols’ death,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement.
The Memphis Police Department released four violent recordings, totaling more than an hour of film, showing the traffic stop and its violent aftermath on Friday.
Mr. Nichols posing for a photo
SOURCE OF IMAGE: REUTERS
Mr. Nichols passed away three days following a traffic stop contact with the police.
In the opening video, officers drag Mr. Nichols from his car and order him to the ground.
I did nothing, he exclaims. Officers order him to lay flat.
One officer yells, “Get on the [expletive] ground!” as another is heard, “Tase him!”
Put your hands behind your back before I break your [expletive]! an officer yells.
The officers are working quite hard right now, Mr. Nichols tells them. “I just want to get home,” you say.
As soon as one of the officers fires a Taser at him, Mr. Nichols immediately stands up and attempts to flee.
Two cops are seen holding Mr. Nichols down while other officers alternately kick, punch, and strike him with what seems to be a baton in a second video, which purports to show the view from a CCTV camera mounted on a pole across the street in a residential neighborhood.
He is dragged across the ground and placed up against a police cruiser.
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In the third and fourth videos, body camera footage from the police officer who attacked Mr. Nichols is shown as he is restrained, pepper-sprayed, and pummeled while constantly yelling, “Mom!”
RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Mr. Nichols, stated that her son was barely 230 feet (about 70 meters) away from his house when Memphis police officers “murdered” him.
Attorneys for the Nichols family have drawn comparisons between the assault and the notorious police beating of Los Angeles driver Rodney King in 1991.
Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and from left, Demetrius Haley
picture caption
Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and from left, Demetrius Haley
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III, and Justin Smith were the five cops who were terminated last week.
Each of them is accused of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression. They were both arrested on Thursday.
According to jail records, four of the five secured bond and were freed from custody by Friday morning.
Martin and Mills’ attorneys have declared that their clients will enter a not-guilty plea.
Cerelyn Davis, the director of the Memphis Police Department, called the officers’ behavior “heinous, reckless, and brutal.”
She informed US media that local officials had chosen to release the footage on Friday evening in order to give schools and commuters enough time to get home because protests were expected.
On Friday night, protests and rallies were scheduled for New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, and Portland, Oregon.