Watch: Tennessee official on bodycam footage of Tyre Nichols
Video footage of 29-year-old father Tyre Nichols being beaten by police in Memphis is being released later, with the city braced for protests. So what do we know about what is in it?
“Sickening” and “appalling” are just some of the words used by the few people to have already seen footage of Mr Nichols’s fatal encounter with police in the US city of Memphis, Tennessee.
He died in hospital days after being pulled over for alleged reckless driving, and struggling with five officers who have since lost their jobs and been charged with his murder.
Bodycam video of the arrest, which includes Mr Nichols calling out for his mother, is due to be made public on Friday.
Only a small number of people have seen it, including the family, their legal team and several officials.
Antonio Romanucci, a lawyer for the Nichols family, described the father-of-one as being treated like a “human piñata” in the footage.
The arrest “was an unadulterated, unabashed, non-stop beating of this young boy for three minutes,” he said.
Image source, FACEBOOK/DEANDRE NICHOLS
Mr Nichols died three days after an encounter with police at a traffic stop
The video will be released in four parts from around 18:00 local time (00:00 GMT).
In all, there is thought to be about an hour of footage, including a few minutes of Mr Nichols interacting with the five officers accused of his murder. There will be redactions to anonymise those not employed by the police or the city.
An audio file of the police radio, which has been shared by various US outlets, gives some indication of the struggle that took place.
Why was he stopped by police?
While details have so far been limited, the hope is that the video will provide a clear picture of the sequence of events that ultimately led to Mr Nichols dying.
This is what we know about the events of the night of 7 January which the video is expected to depict:
- Mr Nichols, a black man, was stopped by five officers, who are also black, on his way home after taking photos of a sunset at a local park, an attorney for the family said
- He was pulled over for alleged reckless driving, at which point the first confrontation occurred
- A second confrontation took place after Mr Nichols fled on foot, and officers caught up with and tried to arrest him
- Mr Nichols later complained of shortness of breath and was taken to hospital, where he was listed in a critical condition
- Officials said Mr Nichols “succumbed to his injuries” on 10 January but provided no further details. An official cause of death has not yet been disclosed
At another press conference, David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said he was “sickened” by what he had seen.
The city’s police chief Cerelyn Davis, the first black woman to hold the role in Memphis, recalled hearing Mr Nichols “call out for his mother” in the video.
“The disregard for humanity… that’s what really pulls at your heartstrings,” she told CNN.
The five officers are in custody facing the same charges: second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
They were fired from their jobs at the Memphis Police Department last week.
Lawyers for two of the ex-officers said their clients planned to fight the charges.
“No one out there that night intended for Tyre Nichols to die,” a lawyer for one of the men said. He said he had not been shown the video.
