Memphis police chief says the video, which shows police beating a Black motorist, depicts ‘acts that defy humanity’.
The city of Memphis has released shocking video of the violent encounter between Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man,
and the five police officers charged with murder in his beating death earlier this month in the United States.
The footage from police body-worn and dashboard cameras was posted on Friday evening on the city’s Vimeo site,
a day after the officers were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression.
The footage shows the officers, all Black, beating the FedEx worker for three minutes in an assault that the Nichols family’s legal team likened to the infamous 1991 police beating
of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.
One video clip shows officers dragging Nichols from the driver’s seat of his car as he yells, “Damn, I didn’t do anything … I am just trying to go home”,
and force him to the ground as they order him to lay on his stomach, then squirt him in the face with pepper spray.