The vice president, who was not scheduled to speak at the funeral, denounced the actions of the officers and renewed calls for Congress to pass police reform.
Vice President Harris gave an unscheduled, emotional address at the funeral for Tyre Nichols in Memphis on Wednesday, denouncing the actions of the officers who brutally beat him and renewing calls for Congress to pass police reform.
Harris, who was in attendance at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church with several White House representatives, was called on by the Rev. Al Sharpton to speak after the vice president hugged Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells.
“Wouldn’t it be nice for her to share a few words for us?” Sharpton asked those in attendance.
When she came onstage, Harris, the first Black person to be vice president, told Nichols’s parents that the country has mourned with them after Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died more than three weeks ago. She then turned her attention to the actions of the five now-fired Memphis police officers, all of whom are Black, who beat Nichols and are facing second-degree murder and other charges.
“When we look at this situation, this is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of the people who had been charged with keeping them safe,” Harris said. “And when I think about the courage and the strength of this family, I think it demands we speak truth.
