Memphis Police Beating: ‘Like A Piñata’

A vicious Memphis police beating has a community shaken, fighting mad, and calling for immediate reform.

Current Events :
On January 7th, 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers for 3 full minutes following a simple traffic stop. The encounter escalated into a violent confrontation that ended with Mr. Nichols being hospitalized in critical condition. He died of his wounds 3 days later.

According to The New York Times, Mr. Nichols was pepper sprayed and shocked with a stun gun before being beaten into submission. Video footage of the incident showed Nichols pleading “What did I do?” while calling out for his mother.

Interestingly, the Memphis police beating is nothing like the Minneapolis police beating that killed George Floyd. You see, Tyre Nichols is Black — and the 5 officers who beat him to death are also Black.

In an initial statement, police attempted to explain what happened.

They said on the evening of January 7th, officers stopped and approached Mr. Nichols in his car, but he ran away. Soon thereafter, a “confrontation occurred” and the officers tried to arrest him.

However, an attorney for the family explained that the police account is not at all complete.

“He was a human piñata for those police officers,” Antonio Romanucci said on Monday while giving his own account of the incident and referencing video footage. “Not only was it violent, it was savage.”

An independent autopsy has since found that Mr. Nichols “suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating.”

With state and federal investigations already underway, prosecutors want to know what made the police officers snap and become deadly violent. They’re also determining if criminal charges should be filed against the officers.

“The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work that our officers perform, with integrity, every day,” Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said in a statement meant to separate the 5 rogue officers from the rest of the police force.

“The citizens of Memphis, and, more importantly, the family of Mr. Nichols deserve to know the complete account of the events leading up to his death” and what may have contributed to it, Memphis Police Association president, Lt. Essica Cage-Rosario, said in a statement.

The 5 officers in the deadly Memphis police beating have been fired pending further charges. Additionally, the Memphis Fire Department said 2 of its employees who responded to the scene have also been “relieved of duty” while it conducts its own internal investigation.

However, the Nichols family has said that doesn’t go far enough and they are pushing for the officers to be charged with first-degree murder.

“Anything short of that we will not accept,” Rodney Wells, Mr. Nichols’s stepfather, said at a news conference on Monday after calling video of the Memphis police beating “horrific.”

OK WASSUP! covers Current Events:
Deadly Memphis police beating caught on camera.