The death of an African-American after police arrest, whose video was due to be released this Friday, prompted the country’s president to call for calm and demand a speedy investigation into the matter.
Five police officers – all African Americans – were arrested Thursday and charged with various crimes, including murder, assault and kidnapping, in connection with the early January arrest and subsequent death of 29-year-old African American Tire Nichols.the US authorities announced.
That’s what the president of the United States, Joe Biden, asked in a statement a “swift, thorough and transparent investigation” into the matter.
The video of the arrest will be released this Friday around 6 p.m. local time (around 12 a.m. in Lisbon).
“I hope they are outraged” by seeing these imagesMemphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said Wednesday.
Deeming demonstrations likely, the Memphis police chief appealed to people not to incite “violence or destruction”.
In his press release, Joe Biden said he joined Tire Nichols’ family in calling for peaceful demonstrations because “anger is understandable, but violence is never acceptable.”
The police officers involved are “directly responsible for the physical violence against Nichols”, underlined Cerelyn Davis on Wednesday, since it was “not just a professional error, but a lack of humanity”, an “heinous, irresponsible and inhumane” act.
On January 7, police planned to detain Tire Nichols for a traffic violation. When police approached the man, “a confrontation ensued” and “the suspect fled,” police said.
Upon his arrest, Nicols complained that he couldn’t breathe, was taken to hospital and died three days later. The details of the arrest are still unclear: the video has so far only been shown to relatives and their lawyers.
“The police beat him to the point where he was unrecognizable. It’s pure and simple, beating this young man non-stop for three minutes,” said the victim’s lawyer, Antonio Romanucci.
The episode was intolerable and criminal and “shouldn’t have happened,” said David Rausch, director of Tennessee’s investigative division, emphasizing that he was “shocked and disgusted” by what he saw.
The five charged police officers were fired last week. The police’s internal investigation found that officers used excessive force. Other agents are still under investigation.
Source: DN
