On Friday night, the city of Memphis released body camera and surveillance footage of the January 7th traffic stop and subsequent beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, that led to his death in the hospital three days later. The release of the footage comes a day after five Memphis police officers, who are also Black and have been fired, were charged with murder.
The footage shows the disturbing and deadly encounter between Nichols and the police officers. The footage begins with an officer arriving at the scene of the initial traffic stop, during which Nichols sounds calm. However, as the officers pull Nichols out of his vehicle, they can be heard yelling at him to “Get the fuck out of the car,” and “Get the fuck on the ground and turn his ass around.” Despite Nichols’ protests that he “didn’t do anything,” and that he is on the ground, the officers continue to threaten to tase him and one officer even tells him, “Bitch put your (hands) behind your back before I break them.”
Moments later, at 8:25 p.m., one officer sprays Nichols in the face with pepper spray, causing him to struggle to his feet and run from the officer. A different body camera video shows the officers catching up with Nichols on a neighborhood street a few minutes later, where the beating continues.
In the footage, Nichols can be heard screaming for his mother as the officers tell him to “give them his hand” and a struggle ensues on the ground. An officer can be heard asking Nichols, “Do you want to get sprayed again?” as two officers hit and kick him while he is on the ground. Nichols continues to scream for his mother and the officers continue to use excessive force, with one officer even threatening to “baton the fuck out of him.”
A remotely operated pole-mounted police surveillance video in the neighborhood gives the clearest view of the blows inflicted on Nichols. The video shows officers hitting Nichols at least nine times without any visible provocation. In the video, an officer is seen shoving Nichols hard to the pavement with a knee or leg, pulling him up by his shoulders, and kicking him in the face twice. After being pulled up into a sitting position, Nichols is hit in the back with what appears to be a nightstick and hit again after being pulled to his knees. Once pulled to his feet, the video shows officers hitting Nichols in the face multiple times while his hands are restrained behind his body, after which he falls to his knees. Less than a minute later, an officer appears to kick Nichols.
After the officers disengage, the footage shows paramedics arrive, but they repeatedly walk away from Nichols before an ambulance arrives. Ten minutes into the pole-camera video, a person who appears to be a paramedic engages Nichols for the first time, around 8:41 p.m. Two minutes after paramedics started attending to Nichols, he is seen falling over to the side and hitting his head hard against a piece of equipment after a bright light was shone in his face. No one appears to help Nichols as he tries to sit up, and he eventually died from his injuries three days later.
The footage has drawn stunned reactions from law enforcement experts and outrage from officials including President Joe Biden, who said it was “yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”
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