Memphis police release damming videos of the beating of Tyre Nichols

As Memphis police brutally beat Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop, he cried out for his mother to come to help him the same way some soldiers do in combat.

Nichols screamed for his mother three 

times as police pulled him from his car for reckless driving. 

Memphis police on Friday released a series of videos from officer body cams and a street light pole camera of Nichols, 29, being beaten by police. He was arrested on January 27 and died three days later in the hospital of his injuries, including a broken neck, significant blood loss, cardiac arrest, and kidney failure.

As seen from an overhead camera, one of the cops kicked him three times in the head while another police officer beat him with a baton as Nichols lay handcuffed and helpless on the ground next to his car. Other cops swore at him, pepper sprayed him, and tased him.

He was only a few blocks from his mother’s house when he was stopped. Nichols called out to the cops, asking what he had done and why he was being stopped. The cops never responded to him. Instead, they went after him full force. 

Once Nichols was subdued, the cops stood around, talking, tying their shoes, and loaning each other small bottles of saline solution to rinse the pepper spray from their eyes. No one spoke with Nichols or sat with him, or offered him assistance. Twenty-two minutes after the beating, an ambulance arrived to transport Nichols to St. Francis Hospital.

The five Black cops have been fired, and they have been released on bond. The former Black officers are Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin, III, Desmond Mills Jr., and Justin Smith. The cops are all members of the Memphis SCORPION police unit.

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