Haven Orecchio-Egresitz/Insider
- Memphis police released footage of five officers beating Tyre Nichols, who died three days later.
- Demonstrators gathered in Memphis on Friday evening, chanting "no justice, no peace."
- Protests continued through the weekend, and a city councilman urged people not to give up until there is change.
Content note: This story describes police brutality and death and contains graphic videos.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
The parents of Tyre Nichols, who died earlier this month after being beaten by Memphis police officers, have been invited to next week's State of the Union address.
Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, extended the invitation to Nichols' grieving parents. In an appearance PoliticsNation on MSNBC, Horsford said he spoke with the man's family "to first extend our condolences to them, to let them know that we stand with them, to ask them what they want from us in this moment."
Shameka Wilson for Insider
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on Sunday that there aren't "enough good people" seeking to become police officers due to the effects of the "defund the police" movement, which he blames for smearing law enforcement officials across the country.
Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, made the comments on NBC's "Meet the Press" while discussing the death of Tyre Nichols, who was brutally beaten by five police officers in Memphis, Tenn., earlier this month.
"We're not getting enough good people applying because of the disparagement on police officers. They don't get enough people applying, taking the test to enter the academy to be an officer because there's been this defund the police concept out there," he said on the NBC News program.
"There's been this attack on law enforcement, and you're not getting the best of the best," he added.
(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
The daughter of Eric Garner, who an NYPD officer fatally choked in 2014, spoke out about the footage of Tyre Nichols' arrest, and sharply criticized how authorities handled the release.
"The fact that we waited for this video to be released like it was an exclusive movie that needed to be premiered on a certain day, it really boils my blood," Emerald Garner told NewsNation on Friday. "It's just heart-wrenching."
She told the outlet that it was a grim reminder of the fatal encounter her father had with Daniel Pantaleo, the former NYPD officer who put her father in a chokehold during an attempted arrest caught on cellphone video.
"It's a replay of what happened eight years ago, almost nine.... to my father," she said. "It's ridiculous."
Memphis Police Department
The Memphis Police Department will 'permanently deactivate' its SCORPION Unit, the department announced Saturday, as protesters gathered for a second night of demonstrations over the killing of Tyre Nichols by five of the team's officers.
The city had already announced it would hire an outside firm to investigate the unit, which was launched in 2021 and stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods.
Haven Orecchio-Egresitz/Insider
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Protesters are back in the streets Saturday evening. It's lightly raining outside city hall.
"We demand that each and every officer, every sheriffs officer, every EMT, be immediately fired," Memphis city council member JB Smiley Jr. told the crowd.
Protesters are angry today that the mayor didn't agree to meet their demands in a call that was made from the bridge last night. They are expressing dismay, after watching the video, that there were eight people in the video and they don't know the names of the other three. Five officers have been charged with second-degree murder.
Smiley is opening the protest tonight, urging people to show up to city council meetings and not give up until there's change: "As we say in Memphis, pull up."
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
MEMPHIS, Tenn — Every Saturday night, RowVaughn Wells would cook dinner for her husband and son. They would eat together.
But on the evening of January 7, the Memphis mother had a strange pain in her stomach and didn't know why.
It wasn't until hours later that she would learn that that pain coincided with some of what she now believes her son Tyre was experiencing mere blocks away.
"For me to find out that my son was calling my name, and I was only feet away, and I did not even hear him; you have no clue how I feel right now," Wells said on Friday.
City of Memphis via AP
On January 8, the Memphis Police Department released a statement describing a "confrontation" with an alleged reckless driver, later identified as Tyre Nichols. But bodycam footage of the incident, released Friday, revealed a different story of the brutal beating that left the 29-year-old dead.
"On January 7, 2023, at approximately 8:30pm, officers in the area of Raines Road and Ross Road attempted to make a traffic stop for reckless driving," The original Memphis Police Department statement read. "As officers approached the driver of the vehicle, a confrontation occurred, and the suspect fled the scene on foot."
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Tyre Nichols was a gentle skateboarder who loved his family and photography. And his friends, family, and activists protesting his death want to remember him that way.
A video compilation of the 29-year-old grinding rails and catching air in Sacramento, California is being shared across social media to commemorate his life.
Camara Williams, a podcaster, attorney, and community organizer who advocates for abolishing the police, tweeted the video on Friday, telling Insider the video showed "he was a person who lived in life and lived in joy."
Memphis Police
"What I saw was certainly police misconduct," Joshua Ritter, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, and partner with El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, told Insider of the footage. "What I saw is never the way that five fully trained officers should try to detain a person."
Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, said there was "no question in my mind that murder charges are appropriate."
"I've prosecuted police officers. I've seen police officers imprisoned. I've seen a lot," he said. "This is probably one of the worst things I've ever seen."
REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Protesters gathered in New York City in Times Square and other locations on Friday night to protest the death of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man. A handful of arrests were made, per NYPD, but the full number would not be available until the morning.
Nichols died several days after being beaten by police in Memphis, Tennessee, during a January 7, 2023, traffic stop. Camera footage of the deadly police beating was released by Memphis on Friday evening at 7 p.m. ET.
Haven Orecchio/Inisder
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Protesters told Insider's Haven Orecchio that they called Mayor Jim Strickland with demands and will not leave the Memphis and Arkansas Bridge, where the protesters have congregated, until he returns their call.
The demands include but are not limited to passing the Data Transparency Ordinance at the city and county levels, tracking law enforcement data, ending the use of unmarked cars and plainclothes officers, and dissolving the SCORPION unit along with other task forces.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
President Joe Biden spoke out on Friday moments after the release of several videos showing police officers brutally beating Tyre Nichols.
On Friday, The City of Memphis released four separate videos related to events surrounding the arrest and beating of Nichols.
Biden said in a statement that he was "outraged" by what he saw.
"Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols' death," Biden said. "It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day."
Adrian Sainz/AP Photo
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — The Memphis Police Department released disturbing footage Friday evening showing the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols.
The violent footage, from police body cameras and stationary cameras, was released on the department's Vimeo page.
"You guys are really doing a lot right now," Nichols is heard saying to the officers at the start of the videos, which were released in four parts. "I'm just trying to go home."
The beating occurred during a traffic stop in Memphis' Hickory Hill neighborhood on January 7. Nichols, who was 29, died of his injuries three days later. Authorities said Nichols had been stopped by the officers and accused of reckless driving, but Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn J. Davis has since said the department has not found proof to substantiate the reckless driving allegation.
Memphis officials and others with access to the video had warned the public of the gruesome nature of the footage in advance of its release on Friday.
Haven Orecchio, Insider
MEMPHIS, Tennessee — Protesters gathered at Martyrs Park in Memphis, Tennessee, around 6 p.m. local time on Friday evening as the city braced for the release of graphic body camera footage that shows several police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols.
Demonstrators said they didn't need to wait for the video — they already knew Nichols' death was murder.
Five officers have been charged with second-degree murder.
Approximately hundreds of protesters blocked a long line of 18-wheelers on Old Bridge, chanting "You take our lives, we'll take your money" and "no justice, no peace.
Sherri, a Memphis native, told Insider her 28-year-old Black son moved to Germany, and she's glad he's out of the country and away from cops in Memphis. She said she was pulled over on Thursday night and was nervous.
When an officer asked her why she was anxious, she responded: "Not all interactions end this way."