KEY POINTS
- A Black man died three days after an incident with police officers t a traffic stop.
- Video footage of the incident has been described as "appalling".
- Five police officers have been charged.
This article contains references to graphic video content, including physical violence and may be distressing for some audiences.
It's been described as "appalling", "heinous", "sickening" and an act "that defies humanity".
For days, Americans have been warned to expect the worst from video footage of the moment a Black man was stopped at traffic by five police officers in Memphis earlier this month.
Now, it has been released.
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump stands next to RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols. Both have appealed for peaceful protests, while calling for a change in police policy. Source: Getty / Scott Olson
Mr Nichols died in a hospital on 10 January, three days after sustaining injuries during his arrest.
Four segments of video - from police body-worn and dashboard cameras - were posted online on Friday evening local time (Saturday AEDT), a day after the officers were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression.
What does the video show?
One video clip shows officers dragging Mr Nichols from the driver's seat of his car as he yells, "Damn, I didn't do anything ... I am just trying to go home". They force him to the ground as they order him to lay on his stomach, then squirt him in the face with pepper spray.
Mr Nichols breaks free, scrambles to his feet and sprints off down a road with officers in pursuit, firing stun guns at him.
A separate video shows a subsequent struggle after officers catch up with Mr Nichols again, and are beating him. Two officers are seen holding him down as a third one kicks him. A fourth officer delivers blows with what appears to be a rod before another punches Nichols.
Memphis police chief Cerelyn Davis and lawyers for Mr Nichols' family - who watched the video with his relatives before it was released - warned in advance that the images were brutal and likely to cause outrage, while appealing to the public for calm.
"You are going to see acts that defy humanity," Mr Davis told CNN ahead of the video's release.
"You’re going to see a disregard for life, duty of care that we're all sworn to and a level of physical interaction that is above and beyond what is required in law enforcement."
The civil rights lawyer representing Mr Nichols' family, Ben Crump, who had described the video as "appalling", "deplorable" and "heinous", said the last words on the video were Nichols crying out for his mother.
"No mother should go through what I am going through right now, no mother should lose their child in the violent way that I lost my child," Tyre Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, said on Friday.
Video footage showed police pulling Tyre Nichols from his car. Source: Supplied / Memphis Police Department
Who are the police officers charged?
The officers, all Black, had already been dismissed from the police department last Saturday, following their 7 January confrontation with Mr Nichols after pulling him over.
The Memphis Police Department has identified them as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr, and Justin Smith, who are aged between 24 and 32.
They have been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (second from the right), local politicians and religious leaders gather for a vigil to honour Tyre Nichols. Source: AAP / CJ Gunther
Ballin was joined by William Massey, representing Mr Martin. Both lawyers said they had not seen the body-cam video.
Their clients were each posting a bond to be released from jail on Thursday and intended to plead not guilty, they said.
Demonstrators protest in Washington over the death of Tyre Nichols who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers on 7 January. Source: AAP / Manuel Balce Ceneta
Who was Tyre Nichols?
The footage was likely to transform Mr Nichols, the father of a four-year-old described as an affable, accomplished skateboarder who recently enrolled in a photography class, into the next face of the US racial justice movement.
Raised in Sacramento, California, Mr Nichols moved before the coronavirus pandemic to the Memphis area, where he lived with his mother and stepfather and worked at FedEx, taking a break each day to come home for a meal prepared by his mother.
Mr Nichols' family and United States President Joe Biden have appealed for protests to stay peaceful in Memphis, a city of 628,000 where nearly 65 per cent of residents are Black. Schools were scheduled to close early and Saturday morning events were cancelled.
Mr Biden spoke with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, Mr Nichols' stepfather, on Friday afternoon to express his condolences. The White House said it was coordinating with relevant government agencies in case protests turn violent.
Mr Nichols' death marked the latest high-profile instance of police officers accused of using excessive force in the deaths of Black people and other minorities in recent years. These incidents have been publicly condemned as systemic racism in the US criminal justice system.
Protests under the banner of the "Black Lives Matter" movement against racial injustice erupted globally following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.
