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Protests under the banner of the 'Black Lives Matter' movement against racial injustice erupted globally following the May 2020 murder of Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.Īntonio Romanucci, another lawyer for Nichols' family, told National Public Radio on Friday that Nichols was a strong supporter of Black Lives Matter and 'basically died for his own cause.' Nichols' death marked the latest high-profile instance of police officers accused of using excessive force in the deaths of Black people and other minorities in recent years.

Biden spoke with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, Nichols' stepfather, on Friday to express condolences, the White House said. Nichols' family and Biden appealed for calm in Memphis, a city of 628,000 where nearly 65% of residents are Black. President Joe Biden said he was 'outraged' and 'deeply pained' after watching the video. 'No mother should go through what I am going through right now, no mother, to lose their child to the violent way that I lost my child,' said Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells. Memphis police chief Cerelyn Davis said before the video's release that it showed behaviors on the part of police officers 'that defy humanity.'Ĭivil rights attorney Ben Crump, representing Nichols' family, called for the police department to disband its SCORPIONS unit, a squad that is supposed to focus on violent street crime and to which at least some of the officers involved were assigned. His mother has said her son was only about 80 yards (meters) from home when he was beaten.Ī stretcher is seen arriving 19 minutes after the first emergency medical personnel get to the scene. Nichols is heard repeatedly screaming, 'Mom! Mom!' as he struggles with officers. Two officers are seen holding him down as a third kicks him and a fourth delivers blows with what appears to be a baton before another punches Nichols.

Other footage shows a subsequent struggle after officers catch up with Nichols again in a nearby neighborhood.

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Nichols breaks free and sprints away down a road with officers chasing him on foot. I am just trying to go home.' Officers force him to the ground as they order him to lie on his stomach and squirt him in the face with pepper spray. The first video released on Friday shows officers dragging Nichols from the driver's seat of his car stopped at an intersection as he yells, 'I didn't do anything. Demonstrations appeared largely peaceful in other cities, including Atlanta, Washington and Sacramento. Three people were arrested for damaging a police vehicle during protests in Times Square, a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said. After the video's release Friday evening, several dozen demonstrators in Memphis marched along Interstate 55, shutting down traffic near a bridge that crosses the Mississippi River into Arkansas.