Brother of Tyre Nichols on five Memphis police officers charged in his death: ‘I hope they die’

The brother of Tyre Nichols, a black man who was allegedly beaten to death by Memphis police, hopes that the five officers involved in his brother’s death also die.

“You want my truth? I hope they die,” Jamal Dupree, who lives in California, said to Sacramento station KTXL on Thursday.

Listen:

The remarks came on the same day that the five officers were indicted as per Nichols’ death and booked into the local jail.

“The former officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., have each been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two charges of aggravated kidnapping, two charges of official misconduct and one charge of official oppression,” according to CNN.

Continuing his remarks, Dupree seemed convinced that, despite the indictments, the officers will suffer no tangible consequences for his brother’s death.

“It doesn’t really mean nothing at this time until they’re actually found guilty for the actual charges. There’s a good chance they can walk free from this. My brother’s last words were screaming for my mom, and they didn’t care,” he said.

However, the evidence in this case appears extraordinarily clear. It consists of bodycam and surveillance footage showing the officers repeatedly bashing an unarmed, handcuffed Nichols — first in the body with a baton, and later in the face with a fist.

Watch some of that footage below:

The beating happened on Jan. 7th after the officers stopped Nichols on the road due to alleged reckless driving.

“As officers approached the driver of the vehicle, a confrontation occurred, and the suspect fled the scene on foot. Officers pursued the suspect and again attempted to take the suspect into custody. While attempting to take the suspect into custody, another confrontation occurred; however, the suspect was ultimately apprehended,” police reportedly said at the time.

It was during the second confrontation that the beating occurred.

The police later changed their story and admitted that they don’t actually have proof that Nichols had been driving recklessly.

“I’m going to be honest with you about the stop itself. What was said was there was witnessing of what was considered reckless driving. We’ve looked at cameras. We’ve looked at body worn cameras. Even if something occurred prior to this stop, we’ve been unable to substantiate it,” Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis told CNN on Friday.

“We’ve taken a pretty extensive look to determine what that probable cause was and we have not been able to substantiate that. It doesn’t mean that something didn’t happen, but there’s no proof,” she added.

Listen:

Following Nichols’ beating and arrest, he was hospitalized in critical condition and died three days later on the 10th.

“UPDATE: Today, the individual involved in the use-of-force incident with officers with the Memphis Police Department on Saturday, Tyre D. Nichols (DOB: 6/5/93) of Memphis, succumbed to his injuries,” the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced at the time.

Local protests began almost immediately. Meanwhile, Nichols’ family lawyered up.

“Mr. Nichols’s family retained the prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has represented the families of several Black victims of police violence, including Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd,” according to The New York Times.

“Mr. Crump called for Memphis police to release body camera footage of the encounter: ‘Nobody should ever die from a simple traffic stop — the footage is the only way to discern the true narrative of why and how that happened to Tyre,'” the Times added.

A couple of days later, all five officers involved in Nichols’ death were fired, and Nichols’ family was shown video footage from the arrest.

A couple more days later, results from an autopsy commissioned by Nichols’ family were released. They found that he died after he “suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”

Then finally on Friday, all the footage was released publicly, and the five officers were indicted.

As a result, protests and some rioting & looting erupted across the nation:

Vivek Saxena

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