Tyre Nichols video worse than Rodney King footage, Memphis police chief says

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The chief of the Memphis police warned on Friday morning that the video of officers beating Tyre Nichols is “perhaps worse” than the infamous footage of Rodney King being attacked by police in Los Angeles more than 30 years ago.

The police department intends to release the video to the public on Friday evening.

In her first interview since five officers were charged with murder on Thursday, police chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told CNN on Friday morning that she was “outraged” after seeing the “alarming” video of the traffic stop of Nichols, 27, who died three days after a 7 January apprehension spiraled into a fatal physical attack.

Davis said there appeared to be no legitimate reason for the traffic stop, and that she did not see any of the five officers intervene to stop excessive force by their fellow officers, saying they appeared to be in a state of “groupthink” as they confronted Nichols and became violent.

“I was in law enforcement during the Rodney King incident and it’s very much aligned with that type of behavior … sort of groupthink. I would say it’s about the same if not worse,” Davis said in a live interview on Friday morning.

King barely survived on 3 March 1991, when he was beaten by officers from Los Angeles police department during an arrest after a car chase, with the violence caught on tape.

On Friday, Davis called for federal action to reform policing in the US, saying that the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act “should be part of this”, the legislation that is stalled in Congress and named after the Black man murdered by a white police officer who kneeled on his neck in Minneapolis in 2020, sparking a national and international civil rights uprising.

Davis said she has watched the tape and heard Nichols calling out for his mother as he was being beaten.

“That’s what really pulls on the heartstrings … why was a sense of care for this individual just absent?”

The five police officers, who are Black, had been fired and were charged on Thursday with various crimes including second-degree murder.

Davis said she has spoken to Nichols’ family and added that she felt pain, loss and a sense of responsibility, “especially in the first steps of justice” over the killing.

Joe Biden has appealed for calm as the authorities prepare to release the body-camera video and other footage of the violent confrontation between the motorist and the officers.

Nichols died in hospital on 10 January from injuries sustained during the encounter.

“I join Tyre’s family in calling for peaceful protest,” the US president said on Thursday. “Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable.”

The president said the Nichols family and the city of Memphis deserved “a swift, full and transparent investigation”, adding: “Public trust is the foundation of public safety, and there are still too many places in America today where the bonds of trust are frayed or broken.”

The video to be released on Friday evening is expected to include footage captured by body cameras, as well as cameras mounted on the dashboards of police vehicles and security cameras on utility poles in the vicinity.

The few individuals who viewed the video before its release and spoke to the media on Thursday said they found it disturbing.

David Rausch, the director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said of the confrontation: “Let me be clear: what happened here does not, at all, reflect proper policing. This was wrong. This was a crime.”

An attorney representing the Nichols family reportedly said an independent autopsy indicated he “suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating”.

“He was a human pi?ata for those police officers,” Antonio Romanucci told reporters. “Not only was it violent, it was savage.”

Police officials initially said there was a confrontation when officers came toward Nichols’ car and then another after they arrested him.

Memphis police officials said the officers had flouted “multiple department policies, including excessive use of force, duty to intervene, and duty to render aid”.

The recording showed Nichols “called repeatedly for his mother”, his family’s legal team said, throughout the beating, which took place about 100 yards from her home, family representatives told reporters.

Speaking to reporters after viewing the video, Romanucci said officers pepper-sprayed Nichols, used a stun gun, and restrained him. Family representatives said Nichols said he wanted just to return home.

“Tyre was brutalized by Memphis police, much like how Rodney King was beaten more than 30 years ago – but unlike Rodney, Tyre lost his life from this violent attack,” Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer on the family legal team, said after seeing the video.

A day before charges were announced, Davis, the police chief, denounced the encounter as “heinous, reckless and inhumane”.

“Aside from being your chief of police, I am a citizen of this community we share,” Davis said in a video posted on YouTube. “I am a mother, I am a caring human being who wants the best for all of us.

“This is not just a professional failing. This is a failing of basic humanity toward another individual … and in the vein of transparency when the video is released in the coming days, you will see this for yourselves.”

A description of Nichols’s health provided by his family suggested a dramatic disparity between his physical strength and that of the arresting officers. Nichols had Crohn’s disease and had trouble maintaining his body weight, the Washington Post reported. He weighed about 145lbs while the officers each weighed more than 200lbs, the Post noted.