Memphis officials released footage of the violent arrest Friday night. Sheena NicholsA 29-year-old black man who died three days later after being severely beaten during a traffic stop.
The death of a young man caused deep pain to the Nichols family and caused a citywide scandal.
The five Memphis cops involved in the stop were fired last week. now facing trial for murder.
Ex-president Donald Trump described the fatal beating as “terrible” and said it “should never have happened”.
Body camera footage of the test was released by city officials at 7:00 pm ET Friday. The video shows officers pulling Nichols from his car and shooting him with a taser before he fled the scene on foot.
Here’s what we know about the stop that started it all:
Why was Nichols stopped?
The Memphis Police Department initially said that Nichols was pulled over around 8:30 p.m. local time for “reckless driving“.
“When the police approached the driver of the car, there was a skirmish, and the suspect fled the scene on foot,” the police said at the time. “The police pursued the suspect and again tried to take the suspect into custody. There was another skirmish while trying to take the suspect into custody; however, the suspect was eventually apprehended.”
Later, the police leadership retracted these statements.
“I’ll be honest with you about the stop itself. It was said that there were witnesses to what was considered reckless driving,” Police Chief Serelyn Davis said in a statement. told CNN On Friday. “We looked at the cameras. We looked at body cameras. Even if something happened before this stop, we couldn’t confirm it.”
“We did a pretty thorough analysis to determine what that likely cause was, and we weren’t able to substantiate that,” she added. — This does not mean that something was not, but there is no evidence.
The Nichols family is also skeptical of the police version of events.
“We don’t know anything other than what we saw on the video,” said Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Nichols family. said Friday during a press conference.
“They say he behaved recklessly. We must see it. We certainly can’t take their word for it.”
What we do know is that after the stoppage began, the police and Nichols got into some kind of physical altercation, and at some point, Nichols fled the police.
Sending the police audio received by Fox 13 captures officers saying, “We have one black man working,” while another tape obtained by CBS News records another policeman saying, “He’s currently fighting.”
Overall, according to the MPD, there were two separate skirmishes between Nichols and the officers during the stoppage, the latter occurring just a few blocks from Nichols’ home.
After the stop, Nichols was hospitalized and photographed with severe bruises and cuts.
He eventually died on 10 January.
An external autopsy revealed that his body had undergone “extensive bleeding“.
Lawyers for the Nichols family said police video of the meeting shows the officers brutally beating Tir.
“He was a living piñata for those cops,” lawyer Antonio Romanucci said of the video.
“(It’s horrible. It’s unfortunate. It’s disgusting,” said Mr. Crump, another lawyer for the family.
