One year later: Tyre Nichols' life, death and legacy
The 29-year-old father, photographer and skateboarder was killed by police on Jan. 7, 2023.
On Jan. 10, 2023, Tyre Nichols, a Black man, died in the hospital after he was kicked and hit with a baton by Memphis Police after a traffic stop. Since then, the five officers involved were fired and charged in state court with second-degree murder and other alleged offenses.
His beating, which was caught on video, was one of several violent encounters between police and Black people that sparked protests and renewed debate about police brutality and police reform in the country. But before that tragic night, Nichols was a father with hobbies, passions and ambitions.
Who was Tyre Nichols? Father. Skateboarder. Photographer.
Tyre Nichols was 29 years old and had a son, who was 4 years old at the time. He loved skateboarding and photography, even having his own website dedicated to his photos. Nichols' family said he was on his way home from taking photos of the sky on the night the traffic stop occurred.
"My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens," Nichols wrote on the "About" section of his website. "I hope to one day let people see what I see and to hopefully admire my work based on the quality and ideals of my work."
He was the baby of his family, born 12 years after his closest siblings. He worked hard to better himself as a father, his family said. He was an avid skateboarder from Sacramento, California, and came to Memphis just before the pandemic and got stuck. But he was fine with it because he was with his mother, and they were incredibly close, his mother, RowVaughn Wells, said. He had her name tattooed on his arm.
“Nobody’s perfect, nobody. But he was damn near,” his mother, RowVaughn Wells, said at a news conference, moments after she watched the video of her son being beaten to death. “He was damn near perfect.”
Friends at his memorial service described him as joyful and lovable.
“This man walked into a room, and everyone loved him,” said Angelina Paxton, a friend who traveled to Memphis from California for the service.
His death
Officers first stopped Nichols at a traffic light on Ross Road near 8 p.m. on Jan. 7. Two police cruisers, one marked and one unmarked, pulled him out of his car and wrestled him to the ground. Nichols pleaded with officers, asking them "What did I do?" as they shouted at him to get on the ground.
One officer pepper sprayed Nichols, while another pulled out his taser.
Nichols wrestled himself away from officers and began running. Officers attempted to tase him, but it's unclear whether their effort was successful. Nichols began running towards the woods near Ross Rd., and officers left the scene in their police cruisers.
Security camera footage from a SkyCop Camera, a series of cameras posted by Memphis Police throughout the city, shows officers on top of Nichols, who was on the ground struggling against them. Officers began punching and kicking Nichols. At one point, an officer hit Nichols with a collapseable police baton. Later, officers pulled Nichols to his feet, one officer holding each of his arms, as a third punches the helpless Nichols.
Other officers on the scene stood by and watched the beating, doing nothing to intervene.
Eventually, they set Nichols down with his back against a police cruiser while nine others mill about the scene. It was not until much later that medical workers arrived, but none of them rushed to help Nichols, who can be seen writhing on the ground, ignored by everyone around him.
Finally, Nichols is loaded onto a stretcher, an ambulance pulls into view and the SkyCop video ends.
Nichols was taken to the hospital in critical condition and died three days later.
Protests
Nichols' death drew national attention, sparking protests within the city and beyond.
Protests began to break out across Memphis over just a couple of hours on the day Nichols died.
Protestors first crashed Mayor Jim Strickland’s MLK breakfast at City Hall, while a larger demonstration followed at the National Civil Rights museum. Chants echoed throughout the city: “No justice, no peace!”
Memphians were calling for more transparency from MPD and harsher punishment for the officers involved, including termination from MPD and legal action.
“Our family will never be the same because of a cruel act over a traffic stop and it’s just a nightmare,” said Keyana Dixon, Tyre’s Sister.
While the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) was looking into the incident, Nichols' family joined protestors outside of the Ridgeway Police precinct. They held up a picture of Nichols in the hospital with tubes running through his nose and throat.
"You shouldn’t be on a dialysis machine looking like this because of a traffic stop," Rodney Wells, Nichols' stepfather, said while pointing at the picture. "That's inhumane."
Charges against MPD officers
The five officers, all of whom are Black, were fired shortly after the beating. Two other MPD officers were also fired, along with three Memphis Fire Department emergency medical technicians who were fired for failing to render aid to Nichols as he struggled with his injuries. All of them are also defendants in a civil lawsuit by Nichols’ family against the City of Memphis.
One of the MPD officers, Desmond Mills Jr., pleaded guilty in early November to federal charges of excessive force and obstruction of justice. Shelby County D.A. Steve Mulroy said Mills also reached a deal with the state to plead guilty to charges of second-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and official misconduct. A 15-year sentencing recommendation would cover both the federal and state cases.
RELATED: New details on the federal plea agreement for former MPD officer Desmond Mills in Tyre Nichols case
The five former officers who were charged were also part of the so-called SCORPION unit, a crime-suppression team police officials disbanded after Nichols' beating.
In July, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was launching a civil rights 'pattern or practice' investigation into the Memphis Police Department and the City of Memphis.
Earlier this year, Nichols' family filed a $550 million civil lawsuit against Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis, the City of Memphis and the five officers involved in Nichols' death.
The $550 million lawsuit filed by Nichols' mother blames officers for his death and accuses Davis of "turning a blind eye" to the SCORPION Unit's "aggressive style of policing" even before Nichols' assault.
Where do things stand now? The future of MPD and the fight against police brutality
Police Chief CJ Davis received praise for her swift handling of Nichols' death, but widespread criticism for her lack of transparency, along with actions and policies that allowed incidents like Nichols' death to happen. Though Davis disbanded the SCORPION Unit following the tragedy, it was initially established in the first place under her leadership.
On Wednesday, Dec. 14, Mayor-elect Paul Young announced that Davis will remain in her position when he assumes office, a decision that was met with some controversy.
Davis said during a news conference on Jan. 4, 2024, that the department has learned many lessons since Nichols' death.
"There have been a lot of lessons learned… of how do we move forward as a department and still know that our community still needs good police officers on the street,” said Davis. “The ones that are doing the work every day, that are continuing to do good work every day, we've got to continue to support them but also ensure that we are holding them accountable to do the right thing all the time.”
On Tuesday, Jan. 9, a Memphis City Council committee voted to recommend Police Chief C.J. Davis be voted out of her office by the full city council.
"I'm not a liar, I don't have to be a liar," Davis said in front of the city council. "I went to work for this council [after the ordinances were passed], I navigated the politics, I navigated the state law, the federal law, and the position of our officers receiving mixed messages."
Recently, news broke that former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland rejected the approved city council ordinances that would end pretextual traffic stops, the use of unmarked cars and some other MPD measures.
“We are deeply disturbed by the recent revelation by former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland that he actively avoided signing and enforcing the Driving Equality Act in honor of Tyre Nichols that the Memphis City Council passed in Spring 2023, directing meaningful reform in how Memphis Police should conduct and report traffic stops,” said a statement from Nichols' family attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci.
During a news conference Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024, MPD Chief CJ Davis said Strickland's rejection of those measures needed context.
"The mayor didn't sign off on the ordinance. However, once the ordinance was passed by the Council, the police department changed our policies. We have to have policies that mirror city ordinance, so we changed the policies anyway," said Chief Davis. "You know, we didn't have to wait for the mayor to sign or not sign. So, our policies have been changed, our officers have had role call training and they have been operating under those ordinances and we haven't had any issues."
However, during the Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2024, council meeting, Davis was met with skepticism from Memphians, including city council members about whether or not those policies were adjusted. MLK50 Government Accountability Reporter Katherine Burgess said she has continued to hear of Memphians being involved in pretextual traffic stops since the ordinance cleared city council.
“There is some pretty good evidence to indicate that even if some of them were enacted, certainly not all of them. For one we should’ve received a report within six months of the ordinances being passed, and that report has never been made public, the city council members that I’ve checked with said they never have received it, so we know that one has not been fully enacted,” said Burgess.
When asked during the news conference, new Mayor Paul Young promised the city would enforce them.
“We will hold Mayor Paul Young accountable to his pledge to enact these reforms. These types of commonsense changes to police policies and practices are essential to establishing trust between communities and police,” said a statement from the Nichols’ family attorneys.
RELATED: Paul Young and CJ Davis discuss crime, future of Memphis in exclusive interviews with ABC24
A community honoring Tyre “When I’m on the board - that’s when I feel the most alive.“
Tyre Nichols’ story not only rocked the city of Memphis, but it’s touched many people across the nation. Since his tragic death many people have chosen to memorialize him in ways they’ve felt appropriate.
In the neighborhood he was killed in, a memorial site was built at the corner of Castlegate Rd. and Ross Rd. almost immediately after the incident. People have dropped off items like balloons, stuffed animals and skateboards symbolic of his love for skating.
In February, Memphis artist David Yancy painted a mural of Nichols in North Memphis at a business on Jackson Ave. That mural is a rendition of one of the first pictures we got of Nichols. Another mural was painted shortly after by another artist that shows a silhouette of Nichols skateboarding with a quote that reads, “Change the world."
Outside of mural tributes, Nichols’ name has also been immortalized by the many different parks renamed after him, like the Civic Canopy and basketball court at the newly renovated Tom Lee Park. Nichols’ mom and stepdad signed the first wooden piece that was added to the canopy. A skate park in Sacramento, a place where Nichols’ spent hours skateboarding, was renamed to the Tyre Nichols Skate Park.
When talking about his love for skateboarding Nichols once said, “When I’m on the board - that’s when I feel the most alive.“
“We just really want to grow and have his impact shed light that we do want to protect people in communities with law enforcement. How can we make law enforcement better that we feel protected within our communities?” Nichols’ nephew, Khamari Ellis, said.
Sunday, Nichols’ family held a candlelight vigil in his honor at the site of the deadly beating.
The vigil marked one year since the deadly police beating that thrust Memphis and the Memphis Police Department into the national spotlight. It was held alongside a similar candlelight vigil at Tyre Nichols Skate Park.
Nichols' family said both events were a time to advocate for justice, and the vigil aimed to provide solace for the family, as well as all those who have been affected by his death, and to honor the person he was.