The nation and the city of Memphis struggled to come to grips Saturday with video showing police pummeling Tyre Nichols - footage that left many unanswered questions about the traffic stop involving the Black motorist and about other law enforcement officers who stood by as he lay motionless on the pavement.
The five disgraced Memphis Police Department officers, who are also Black, have been fired and charged with second-degree murder and other crimes in Nichols' death three days after the arrest. The video released Friday renewed questions about how fatal encounters with law enforcement continue even after repeated calls for change.
A Memphis police spokeswoman declined to comment on the role played by other officers who showed up at the scene. Demonstrators at times blocked traffic while chanting slogans and marching through the streets of New York City, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. In Washington, protesters gathered across the street from the White House and near Black Lives Matter Plaza.
In an AP interview Friday, she said she would not shut down a unit if a few officers commit “some egregious act” and because she needs that unit to continue to work. Questions swirled around what led to the traffic stop in the first place. One officer can be heard saying that Nichols wouldn't stop and then swerved as though he intended to hit the officer's car. The officer said that when Nichols pulled up to a red light, the officers jumped out of the car.But Davis said the department cannot substantiate the reason for the stop.
Security camera footage shows three officers surrounding Nichols as he lies in the street cornered between police cars, with a fourth officer nearby. The other officers then appear to hoist Nichols to his feet, with him flopping like a doll, barely able to stay upright. It takes more than 20 minutes after Nichols is beaten and on the pavement before any sort of medical attention is provided, even though two fire department officers arrived on the scene with medical equipment within 10 minutes.
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