Newly released video shows Memphis police officers battering motorist Tyre Nichols with punches and kicks and also using pepper spray and a baton, with Nichols howling in pain as he tried to shield the blows.
Newly released video shows Memphis police officers battering motorist Tyre Nichols with punches and kicks and also using pepper spray and a baton, with Nichols howling in pain as he tried to shield the blows.
Newly released video shows Memphis police officers battering motorist Tyre Nichols with punches and kicks and also using pepper spray and a baton, with Nichols howling in pain as he tried to shield the blows.
Yet initially, in a statement posted on social media the day after the incident, Memphis police used vague language to describe the attack and said nothing to suggest the officers had acted with the callousness and violence captured by the video clips made public late Friday.
It’s the latest example in a long string of early police accounts regarding use of force that were later shown to have minimized or ignored violent and sometimes deadly encounters, including the account given by Minneapolis police after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.
In its first comment on the arrest the night of Jan. 7 of Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx worker, by members of the city police’s so-called Scorpion unit, the department said vaguely that the officers involved had been “routinely relieved of duty” during an investigation and an outside agency had been brought in.
As Nichols was dying in a hospital, the official police account said he had been stopped for reckless driving when “a confrontation occurred” and he fled on foot. He was nearly home after having taken sunset photos at a park.
“While attempting to take the suspect into custody, another confrontation occurred; however, the suspect was ultimately apprehended,» police said Jan. 8. ”Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath, at which time an ambulance was called to the scene. The suspect was transported to St.
