Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: US authorities have released shocking video of the brutal encounter between Tyre Nichols, a young Black man, and the five police officials charged with murder in his death earlier in January in the United States of America.
The video from dashboard and police body-worn cameras was posted on the city’s Vimeo site on Friday evening, a day after the police officers were charged with murder, assault, oppression, kidnapping, and official misconduct.
The video footage shows the officers, all Black, torturing, beating the FedEx worker for three minutes in an attack that the legal team of Nichols family likened to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles state motorist Rodney King.
Video shows US police brutality
One video clip shows police officers dragging Tyre Nichols from the driver’s seat of his car as he yells, “Damn, I did not do anything … I am only trying to go home”, and force him to the ground as the officers order him to lay on his stomach, then they squirt him in the face with pepper spray.
Soon after being wrestled to the pavement, Nichols calmly replied, “OK, I am on the ground”. Then, as the police officers continue to yell, the victim says, “Man, I am on the ground.”
A police officer yells, “Put your both hands behind your back before I break your [expletive].” Moments later, another police officer yells, “[Expletive], put your both hands behind your back before I break them”.
“You people are really doing a lot right now,” Tyre Nichols says loudly to the officers. “I am only trying to go home.”
“Stop, I am doing nothing,” Nichols yells a moment later.
After the beating, police officers milled about for many minutes while Nichols lay propped up against the car, then slumped onto the street.
Three days later, Nichols succumbed to his injuries and died in the hospital.
Last Saturday following their January 7 confrontation, the five police officers were dismissed from the police department.
