MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Despite the cold temperatures, community advocates hit the streets to continue pushing for justice for Tyre Nichols. Activists held a sunset rally at the Shelby Farms park in honor of Tyre’s love of sunsets.
As new names are revealed of those involved in the beating death of Tyre Nichols, community activists are demanding more information to be made public and more officials to be charged.
“We want every officer that was there charged accordingly,” Casio Montez said. “We want every officers name publicly said. They publicly killed Tyre. If you’re man enough to do something, be a man enough to handle the consequences for your actions”
Just hours after former officer Preston Hemphill was officially named by the Memphis Police Department, confusion rose over why the department didn’t name him previously.
“[Authorities] knew he was there, they watched the video.”
Protestors are split nearly 50/50 over those who watched the video and those who said they don’t ever want to see it. Whether they’ve watched it or not, these activists are still coming together for a common cause.
“Everybody saw this video … with that being said, stand on business cause we gone stand on business,” Montez said. “We’re gonna go everywhere you think we ain’t gone come ad we’re gonna do everything you think we ain’t gonna do — except be dumb and be violent because the momma asked for peace.”
New Monday evening, community calls for Chief Cerelyn Davis to resign.
“Yeah, she can roll. If you're gonna continue to do what you’re doing now, you can roll, and we want the DOJ to come in and get involved,” Montez said. “We don’t want no in-house investigation cause [they’re] gonna get lawyers from Memphis, and we know how this is going to turn out — to investigate a squad that we know are murdering citizens from Memphis.”
Activists asked for everyone who’s been attending the rallies to bring a friend to their next call to action to create a larger presence in support of Tyre.
The family tentatively has a news conference set for Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. with Attorney Ben Crump and Reverend Al Sharpton. They are expected to respond to the additional actions taken against Memphis Police officers as well as the three fired Memphis Fire personnel.