Attorney for Tyre Nichols family: 'We will see what they did to Tyre'

Almost two weeks after Tyre Nichols died in the hospital, city officials sat down Monday with Nichols' family to watch footage of five Memphis Police officers during the traffic stop preceding his death.

The family, flanked by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, attorney Antonio Romanucci and Van Turner, president of the NAACP Memphis Branch and Memphis mayoral candidate, stood on the stage of the Mt. Olive Cathedral CME Church Monday afternoon to talk about what they saw.

"You should not be killed because of a simple traffic stop," Crump said.

Read More:Tense Memphis mourns Tyre Nichols, awaits release of video

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said his office is working with Memphis Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on releasing the video of the incident. Mulroy said the video could be released "this week or next."

Nichols' father, Rodney Wells, said the family wants the officers charged with "murder one."

“What I saw on that video today was horrific. No father or mother should have to see that,” Wells said.

"My son loved me to death," said Nichols' mother RowVaughn Wells, who spoke publicly for the first time Monday. "My son was a beautiful soul."

Wells said Nichols had a tattoo of her name on his arm and that he embodied loving everyone — a lesson she said she taught him and all of her children.

"I taught my kids to love people until they give you a reason not to," she said. "We are going to get justice for Tyre if it's the last breath I take."

Nichols died Jan. 10, three days after he was hospitalized following a traffic stop with Memphis Police. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was called to investigate the officers' "use of force" and the FBI, Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney's Office are investigating the incident for potential civil rights violations.

According to police, officers from the Memphis Police Department pulled over Nichols, who has no criminal record, around 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 7 for a traffic violation. After what police described as two "confrontations," Nichols was arrested and "complained of a shortness of breath."

He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition. Nichols died in the hospital.

Crump, when speaking to an audience of a few hundred press and Memphians Monday, said the footage draws a comparison to the 1991 beating of Rodney King by police in Los Angeles.

"What we saw, regrettably, reminded us of the Rodney King video," Crump said. "But, unlike Rodney King, Tyre didn't survive."

Crump also said when the family met with Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn "CJ" Davis Monday, she had tears in her eyes.

"[Davis] said that she was not proud of what we were about to see on that video," Crump recalled. "She said she was proud of many things that law enforcement did in the community...but she said she was not proud of what we were about to see."

The five officers involved in the stop were placed on administrative leave immediately following the incident and were fired Friday, following a hearing. The department cited multiple department policy violations, including those on use of force, failure to render aid and their duty to intervene.

Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith were all fired Friday evening. Two of the officers had been with the department since August 2020, who others since March 2018 and one since March 2017.

Crump described the video as "appalling."

"It is deplorable. It is heinous," Crump said. "It is very troublesome on every level."

Crump said the last words on the video were of Nichols, only 80-100 yards from his house and calling out three times for his mom.

"Where's the humanity?" Crump asked.

Romanucci said some of the five officers fired on Friday were part of the department's Organized Crime Unit.

"This has to stop," Romanucci said during a press conference Monday afternoon. He said Nichols was "kicked" and had "multiple uses of force" performed on him during the "unadulterated...beating of [Nichols] for three minutes."

"Not only was [the incident] violent, it was savage," Romanucci said.

Rodney Wells wanted people to know the reason he believed his son ran from police that night.

"Our son ran because he was scared for his life," Wells said. "It wasn't because he was trying to do drugs, no guns, none of that. When you see the video, you will see why he was scared for his life. I wanted to throw that out there...because we've heard that on social media. He was trying to get home."

Lucas Finton is a news reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Family, lawyers speak after seeing footage from Tyre Nichols arrest