‘Defend my life’: Kansas Citians hold vigil for Tyre Nichols, killed by Memphis police
Days after officials in Tennessee released video of five Memphis police officers beating a man to death, sparking outrage across the country, a group of Kansas Citians on Sunday gathered to remember Tyre Nichols, the victim of the attack.
The vigil was held at 3 p.m. at the Spirit of Freedom Fountain off Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard and was organized by local activist groups Decarcerate KC, Reale Justice Network and Operation Liberation Kansas City.
Kansas City joined other communities, including New York City, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, where crowds have formed to remember Tyre Nichols and speak out against police violence.
Video of the arrest released Friday, following the announcement of murder charges against the former officers, all of whom are Black, showed them beating Nichols, who is also Black, with fists, boots and batons.
The about three dozen people gathered Sunday stood silently in the cold. Some held candles. Others laid flowers next to framed photos of Nichols. On posters behind them were the photos and names of people recently killed by members of the Kansas City Police Department, including Donnie Sanders, Terrance Bridges, Ryan Stokes and Cameron Lamb.
“I’m tired because yet again, we have to see Black death,” said Nichole Smith, a co-founder of Operation Liberation, a Kansas City based bail-assistance nonprofit.
She said, in this latest moment of reckoning, the community doesn’t need more Black police. Instead she believes the country needs more community accountability, support, resources, love and restorative justice.
“Stop telling me that we matter. Mattering is the floor ... I want you to defend my life,” said Dawn Oliver, co-founder of Operation Liberation. “Give us our flowers while we are here.”
Herald Smith, with KC Leap (the Kansas City Law Enforcement Accountability Project), said Nichols’ killing raises questions about representation in police departments.
“Tyre was killed by Black officers. This proves that it doesn’t matter what color the police are,” Smith said. “It’s the culture that has to be abolished.”
The arrest
Nichols was only a few minutes from the home he shared with his mother and stepfather when he was pulled over on Jan. 7 by police officers.
The 29-year-old father to a 4-year-old son was driving home after photographing the sky. In the video released Friday, Nichols is heard saying he just wants to go home, family lawyers said.
The footage shows the officers chasing and pummeling Nichols and leaving him on the pavement propped against a squad car as they fist-bump and celebrate their actions.
Lawyers described the last words Nichols is heard saying — calling for his mom, three times.
It took more than 20 minutes for Nichols to receive medical attention after slumping to the ground following the beating.
Each of the five former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
Authorities have not released an autopsy report, but they have said there appeared to be no justification for the traffic stop, and nothing of note was found in the car.
An avid skateboarder, photographer
Loved ones have told media that Nichols was an avid skateboarder from Sacramento, California, who moved to Memphis with his mother just before the pandemic began. In Tennessee, he worked second shift at FedEx with his stepfather.
He also made a website, called This California Kid, to document his art, which included many landscapes.
“Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people,” he wrote on his website.
“My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens,” Nichols wrote. “People have a story to tell, why not capture it.”
Nichols’ relatives have urged supporters to protest peacefully.
“I don’t want us burning up our city, tearing up the streets, because that’s not what my son stood for,” Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, said Thursday. “If you guys are here for me and Tyre, then you will protest peacefully.”
These words, which have already been spoken countless times across the country, were also read aloud at Sunday’s vigil.
“I hope that [Nichols] feels the love that we are putting out in the atmosphere for him today,” Nichole Smith said. “And I hope that one day we actually get real justice for people like Tyre.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
