Tyre Nichols sentenced to death on the street

On January 7, 2023, five police officers from the Memphis Police Department severely beat 29-year-old Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee. Nichols was hospitalized in critical condition and died there three days later.

The officers stopped Nichols for alleged reckless driving, pulled him from his car, and used pepper spray and a taser on him. During the incident, Nichols managed to break away. When officers caught up with Nichols, they beat him for about three minutes, punching and kicking him in the head and striking him on the back with a baton while he was restrained. Released footage of the traffic stop showed Nichols never fought back against the officers. Nichols and the five officers were Black.

The five officers were fired on January 20, and on January 26 they were arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping, assault, and misconduct; two firefighters who were on the ambulance that took Nichols to the hospital were relieved of duty pending an investigation. On January 27, the Memphis Police Department released four clips of edited video showing events between 8:24 p.m. and 9:02 p.m. An autopsy commissioned by his family found "extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Justice both opened investigations.

The release of body camera and surveillance footage led to widespread protests in Memphis and across the United States.but Tyre Nichols’s mother calls for peaceful protest ahead of video release