You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Video Shows Memphis Cops Brutally Beat Tyre Nichols “Like a Human Piñata”

HeadlineJan 24, 2023

In Tennessee, the parents of a 29-year-old African American man who died after he was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers say their son was “defenseless” during his ordeal. Tyre Nichols died of kidney failure and cardiac arrest on January 10, three days after his violent arrest following a traffic stop. On Monday, Memphis officials privately showed police body-camera footage of Nichols’s arrest to family and attorneys. They said, after viewing the video, that Nichols was pepper-sprayed, tased, restrained, kicked and beaten. This is family attorney Antonio Romanucci.

Antonio Romanucci: “He was defenseless the entire time. He was a human piñata for those police officers. It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy for three minutes.”

RowVaughn Wells: “Oh my god!”

Antonio Romanucci: “That is what we saw in that video.”

In the wake of Nichols’s death, Memphis police officials fired five officers for violating department policies, including excessive use of force and failing to render aid. Like Nichols, all five of the former officers are Black. Tyre Nichols was a skilled skateboarder, an amateur photographer, and father to a young son.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top