Protesters take to Memphis streets to rage against body camera footage of Tyre Nichols’ arrest
Crowd shutdown I-55 in the city after City released the video of officers beating the 29-year-old Black man
Protesters have shut down parts of Interstate 55 in Memphis after the city released videos of the police beating of Tyre Nichols.
The videos were released on Friday evening and show five Memphis police officers beating Nichols, 29, during the arrest. He died from his injuries three days after the shocking incident.
The five officers, all of whom are Black, were immediately fired from the force and now face murder charges.
The protests began shortly after the video was released at 7pm ET, with a large crowd taking to I-55 in downtown Memphis headed towards the Mississippi River bridge, according to ABC24.
Shortly after the video’s release at 6 p.m., a large crowd took to I-55 in downtown Memphis and appeared to be headed towards the Mississippi River Bridge.
Protesters in Memphis now heading up to the upper level of the highway. #TyreNichols pic.twitter.com/lNYeT8eKNx
— Kirstin Garriss (@ReporterGarriss) January 28, 2023
There were no immediate reports of damage, according to the news channel.
Protestors in Memphis now moving toward the police station… pic.twitter.com/TfEl79ZPqf
— Priscilla Thompson (@PriscillaWT) January 28, 2023
Protesters then also headed towards the city’s police station, according to NBC News.
Meanwhile, groups of protesters also gathered in New York’s Times Square, Washington DC and Atlanta, Georgia.
The footage shows the Black officers savagely beating the 29-year-old FedEx worker for three minutes in an assault that the Nichols family’s legal team likened to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.
Officers who caught up with Nichols after he fled the scene of the initial stop then wrestled him to the ground and pepper spray was seemingly deployed in Nichols’s face.
“I am going to baton the f**k out of you,” one officer can be heard shouting., while another says “Watch out, I’ll spray your a** again.”
Nichols on the ground can be heard crying out loudly for his mother.
The officers then can be heard on bodycam video repeatedly shouting at Nichols “give me your f***ing hands.”
Another officer can be heard saying, “That mother f**** made me spray myself” with pepper spray.
The video then showed Nichols slumped against a car while the officers stood around laughing, recounting the arrest and what they had done to capture him.
“I jumped in, started rocking him,” one officer can be heard bragging as another claimed that Nichols put his hand on their gun.
“He literally had his hand on my gun. That mother*****r was on there,” the officer stated.