Tyre Nichols funeral: Mourners name for finish to police brutality, Kamala Harris condemns ‘act of violence’

The family members of Black folks killed by police in cities throughout the United States got here to Tyre Nichols’ funeral in a Memphis church on Wednesday to supply consolation to his household. He was fatally crushed by officers final month.

Memphis,UPDATED: Feb 2, 2023 07:31 IST

Vice President Kamala Harris sits with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells through the funeral service for his or her son Tyre Nichols in Memphis. (Image: Reuters)

By Reuters: The family members of Black folks killed by police in cities throughout the United States got here to Tyre Nichols’ funeral in a Memphis church on Wednesday to supply consolation to the household of the 29-year-old, who was fatally crushed by officers final month.

Speaking over a flower-bedecked casket on the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, preachers recalled a younger man who liked images and skateboarding, and demanded justice for Nichols.

Civil rights leaders and relations additionally known as for an finish to recurring police violence towards Black Americans. They addressed a congregation that included family members of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, two African Americans whose deaths by the hands of police sparked protests in 2020.

“We cannot continue to let these people brutalize our kids,” stated Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather.

Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Memphis and embraced Nichols’ mom, RowVaughn Wells, within the pews earlier than addressing the congregation.

ALSO READ | Video reveals Black man screaming for mom as US cops beat him to dying

“This is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe,” Harris stated. “Tyre Nichols should have been safe.” The Democrat promised to assist go federal laws to cut back police misconduct.

Nichols died on Jan. 10 in a hospital from accidents he sustained three days earlier when crushed by Memphis police who pulled him over whereas he was driving dwelling.

Ben Crump, an legal professional for the household, has branded the incident a “police lynching.”

The Memphis Police Department fired 5 of the officers, who are also Black. Prosecutors charged them final week with second-degree homicide, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has usually spoken on the funerals of victims of police brutality, decried the 5 officers as “thugs” and traitors to the civil rights motion as he eulogized Nichols within the metropolis the place the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.

“You didn’t get on the police department by yourself,” Sharpton stated because the congregation clapped and shouted. “People had to march and go to jail and some lost their lives to open the doors for you, and how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing?”

ALSO READ | Stomp his a**: US cops laughed, boasted as Black man they assaulted lay dying

Two different officers implicated within the occasions resulting in Nichols’ dying have been relieved of obligation — successfully suspended — and are beneath investigation. Two paramedics and their on-scene supervisor have been dismissed on Monday from town hearth division, whereas two Shelby County sheriff’s deputies have been suspended.

Police video of the confrontation launched by town on Friday confirmed officers dousing Nichols with pepper spray and pummeling him with punches, kicks and baton blows as he cried out for his mom. One officer was seen firing a Taser stun gun at Nichols when he tried to flee.

The footage ends exhibiting Nichols was left handcuffed, bloodied and slumped towards the aspect of a police automobile for practically a quarter-hour earlier than receiving medical consideration.

The chief of police, Cerelyn Davis, has known as the conduct seen within the video “inhumane” and stated investigators haven’t substantiated that Nichols was driving recklessly when he was pulled over, as arresting officers asserted on the time.

Civil rights advocates and attorneys for Nichols’ household have condemned the beating as the newest case of a Black individual brutalized by a racially biased legislation enforcement system that disproportionately targets folks of coloration, even when officers concerned will not be white.

ALSO READ | Memphis Police disbands Scorpion unit after Tyre Nichols’s deadly beating as US protests develop

Nichols grew up in Sacramento, California, and moved to Memphis early within the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. He had a 4-year-old son and took a every day supper break from his FedEx job to hitch his stepfather and co-worker for meals at his dwelling.

Antonio Romanucci, one other lawyer for his household, has stated Nichols additionally was a powerful supporter of the Black Lives Matter motion, saying it was a trigger for which he gave his life, “and essentially what that makes him is a martyr.”

ALSO READ | 3 officers fired for delayed affected person evaluation in Tyre Nichols case

Published On:

Feb 2, 2023