Following the release of four videos that showed Memphis police officers pulling 29-year-old Tyre Nichols from his car, kicking and beating him, and then standing around after they propped his body against a car the Washington Post put some context as to what led up to the traffic stop that led to the young Black man's death by interviewing the Memphis police chief.
The report from the Post contains all four videos and documents the barely audible comments and overtalk as the officers forced him to the ground, cursing and assaulting him as he tried to protect himself.
Describing one key video taken from an elevated security camera and not from a police officer's body cam, the Post reports, the video "shows Memphis police delivered at least two kicks and two baton strikes, and five punches to Tyre Nichols’s face. Two officers are seen struggling with Nichols, who is lying on the pavement, as they appear to try to handcuff him. At 8:34 p.m., a third officer can be seen exiting a police car and approaching them. After appearing to say something, he then takes a kick at Nichols, though it is unclear whether he makes contact with his head or another body part, as the officer appears to slip."
The report adds, "The officer appears to say something else — then takes another kick or swipe with his right leg, appearing to aim at Nichols’s arm."
In an interview with the Post, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis admitted that there is no video showing the initial traffic stop, stating the officer who "stopped Nichols was driving a brand-new unmarked car that was not equipped with dashboard cameras."
The WaPo report adds that Davis explained, "she doesn’t know why the officer was in an unmarked car, or how the initial encounter between Nichols and the officer unfolded."
Speaking with the Post she added, "this officer and the other officer that joined were already ramped up about Mr. Nichols in his car. If something did happen we don’t know what it was. They allege that he was driving on the wrong side of the road but we have not been able to prove that.”
You can read more here as well as view all of the released videos.
