By AARON MORRISON and ADRIAN SAINZ (Associated Press)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tyre Nichols’ household and associates remembered him with songs of religion and heartfelt tributes Wednesday, mixing a celebration of his life with outraged requires police reform after the brutal beating he endured by the hands of Memphis police.
Nichols’ mom, RowVaughn Wells, fought again tears as she spoke lovingly of her son.
“The only thing that’s keeping me going is that I truly believe that my son was sent here on assignment from God. And I guess now his assignment is done. He’s gone home,” she stated, urging Congress to cross police reform.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and Vice President Kamala Harris each delivered impassioned speeches calling on lawmakers to approve the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a broad package deal of reforms that features a nationwide registry for law enforcement officials disciplined for misconduct, a ban on no-knock warrants and different measures.
Harris stated the beating of Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, by 5 Black law enforcement officials was a violent act that violated the said mission of police to make sure public security.
“It was not in the interest of keeping the public safe, because one must ask, was not it in the interest of keeping the public safe that Tyre Nichols would be with us today? Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe? So when we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe,” she stated.
Nichols was crushed after police stopped him for an alleged site visitors violation Jan. 7. Video launched after strain from Nichols’ household exhibits officers holding him down and repeatedly punching, kicking and hanging him with a baton as he screamed for his mom.
Sharpton stated the officers who beat Nichols might need acted in a different way if there have been actual accountability for his or her actions. He additionally stated he believes that if Nichols had been white, “you wouldn’t have beat him like that.”
“We understand that there are concerns about public safety. We understand that there are needs that deal with crime. But you don’t fight crime by becoming criminals yourself. You don’t stand up to thugs in the street becoming thugs yourself. You don’t fight gangs by becoming five armed men against an unarmed man. That ain’t the police. That’s punks,” he stated.
Family of different Black women and men killed by police — together with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean and Eric Garner — additionally attended the funeral and Nichols’ mom referred to as on officers to stop extra tragedies.
“We need to take some action because there should be no other child that should suffer the way my son — and all the other parents here have lost their children — we need to get that bill passed,” Wells stated. “Because if we don’t, that blood — the next child that dies, that blood is going to be on their hands.”
Tiffany Rachal, the mom of Jalen Randle, who was fatally shot by a Houston police officer in 2022, sang a rendition of the basic gospel customary “Total Praise” to rousing applause from the congregation and Nichols’ household.
“All of the mothers all over the world need to come together, need to come together to stop all of this,” Rachal stated.
Civil rights legal professional Ben Crump, who represents Nichols’ household, referred to the graphic video displaying the officers punching, kicking and beating Nichols, even after he lay helpless on the bottom.
“Why couldn’t they see the humanity in Tyre?” he requested.
Tyre’s sister, Keyana Dixon, stated she felt a ache like she had by no means skilled earlier than “when those monsters murdered my baby brother.” LaToya Yizar, whose mom was Nichols’ godmother, learn from a poem she wrote titled, “I’m Just Trying to Go Home,” invoking Nichols’ phrases to the officers.
Sharpton stated he took his daughter Ashley early Wednesday to the positioning of the previous Lorraine Motel, the place the Rev. Martin Luther King. Jr. was shot on April 4, 1968. He famous that King was in Memphis to assist a strike by metropolis sanitation staff, most of whom had been Black.
“The reason why … what happened to Tyre is so personal to me, is that five Black men that wouldn’t have had a job in the police department, would not ever be thought of to be in an elite squad, in the city that Dr. King lost his life, not far away from that balcony, you beat a brother to death,” Sharpton stated.
Nichols, a skateboarder and novice photographer who labored making containers at FedEx, grew up in Sacramento, California, and beloved the San Francisco 49ers. He got here to Memphis simply earlier than the coronavirus pandemic and acquired caught. But he was advantageous with it as a result of he was along with his mom, they usually had been extremely shut, she stated. He even had her identify tattooed on his arm.
Nichols made associates throughout morning visits to Starbucks and at all times greeted his mom and stepfather when he returned house with a sunny, “Hello, parents!” The child of their household, Nichols had a 4-year-old son and labored onerous to higher himself as a father, his household stated.
In the three weeks since Nichols’ demise, 5 law enforcement officials had been fired and charged with homicide. Their specialised unit was disbanded. Two extra officers have been suspended. Two Memphis Fire Department emergency medical staff and a lieutenant had been additionally fired. And extra self-discipline could possibly be coming.
Attorneys for 2 of the charged officers, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., stated they’ll plead not responsible. Blake Ballin, the lawyer for Mills, informed AP that the movies “produced as many questions as they have answers.”
Lawyers for the three different officers haven’t supplied remark to the AP.
Nichols’ demise was the newest in a string of early accounts by police about their use of drive that had been later proven to have minimized or omitted point out of violent encounters.
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AP reporters Travis Loller and Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tenn.
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For extra protection of the Tyre Nichols case, go to https://apnews.com/hub/tyre-nichols.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”