Explained | The Tyre Nichols assault case and its aftermath Premium

Protests erupted in several U.S. cities after bodycam footage showing Memphis police officers brutally beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was made public.

The story so far: The death of a 29-year-old Black man in Tennessee due to police brutality has sparked outrage and calls for justice across the U.S. after a graphic video depicting the violent incident was released last week. 

Tyre Nichols was returning home from a park— where he had gone to capture the sunset— when he was pulled over by the Memphis police for alleged reckless driving. The 70-minute footage released by authorities showed five Black officers kicking, punching and beating the 29-year-old repeatedly for three minutes even though he appeared to pose no threat. After the footage was made public, protests intensified over the weekend, amid renewed calls for change in police culture.

In 2020, the George Floyd case triggered worldwide protests and led to a massive outcry against racial injustice and the use of excessive police force against minorities. George Flyod died after a white Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for several minutes as he repeatedly cried out that he wasn’t able to breathe.

Father of a four-year-old, Tyre D. Nichols lived in Sacramento, California, before he moved to Memphis during the COVID-19 pandemic and chose to stay back. Nichols worked at a FedEx facility with his stepfather. His family describes him as a skateboarder who loved photography. “Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people,” Tyre Nichols wrote on his website, which hosts a gallery of what he called his masterpieces.

On January 7, Nichols was minutes away from his home, as he told his mother, when he was pulled over by Memphis police officers. The authorities initially claimed that Nichols ran away following a confrontation with cops and was arrested after a second confrontation. He was taken to the hospital after he “complained of having a shortness of breath”, according to police. Nichols died three days later.

The death of the 29-year-old sparked outrage, with family and friends accusing the police of assaulting Nichols and causing him to suffer a heart attack. “When we got to the hospital, it was devastating. All of that still should not occur because of a traffic stop,” his stepfather told local media.

The police department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation ordered separate probes to look into the arrest and use of force. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department also ordered a civil rights investigation into Nichols’ arrest.