The death of an African American after being detained by the police, whose video must be released this Friday, led the president of the country to ask for calm and demanded a quick investigation of the case.
Five police officers, all African-American, were arrested and charged Thursday with a variety of crimes, including murder, assault and kidnapping, related to the arrest and subsequent death in early January of 29-year-old African-American Tire Nichols, by US authorities. .
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, called in a statement for a “prompt, complete and transparent investigation” of the case.
The video of the arrest will be released today around 18:00 local time (around 00:00 in Lisbon).
“I hope they are outraged” when they see these images, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said Wednesday.
Deeming demonstrations likely, the Memphis police chief called on people not to incite “violence or destruction.”
In his press release, Joe Biden said he joined the family of Tire Nichols in calling for the demonstrations to be peaceful, because “anger is understandable, but violence is never acceptable.”
The police officers in question are “directly responsible for the physical violence committed against Nichols,” Cerelyn Davis stressed this Wednesday, considering that it was “not only a professional error, but a lack of humanity,” an act “atrocious, irresponsible and inhuman”. .
On January 7, the police intended to arrest Tire Nichols for a traffic violation. As police approached the man, “a standoff ensued” and “the suspect fled,” according to police.
When he was arrested, Nicols complained that he couldn’t breathe, he 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 beyond recognition. It is a pure and hard beating, without interruption, to this young man, for three minutes,” said the lawyer for the victim’s relatives, Antonio Romanucci.
The episode was unconscionable and criminal and “should not have happened,” said David Rausch, director of the Tennessee department of investigation, stressing that he was “shocked and disgusted” by what he saw.
The five accused police officers were fired last week. The internal police investigation concluded that the officers used excessive force. Other agents are still under investigation.
Source: TSF
