Unanswered questions from videos of Tyre Nichols' arrest
- Published
Watch: Footage shows the violent arrest of Tyre Nichols
The video footage of Tyre Nichols being beaten by police in Memphis shows in harrowing detail the events that led to his death. But some questions still remain.
Lawyers for his family said the officers acted like a "pack of wolves" and beat him "like a human pinata".
Police Chief Cerelyn Davis, who is the first black woman to serve in the role, told the BBC she was shocked. "Something happened that we can't explain," she said.
The 29-year-old motorist was pulled over by police on 7 January. The footage that emerged led the authorities to fire the five officers last week and charge them with second-degree murder.
On Friday evening, the videos were released to the public. Here is what we still don't know.
1. Could medics have done more?
It is evident from the footage that Mr Nichols is in distress after the beating. He writhes on the ground before being slumped up against a car, unable to properly sit up himself.
After two medics arrive at the scene, the videos appear to show a lack of urgency on their part to treat him. Their employer, the fire department, has suspended them and launched an investigation.
Mr Nichols' stepfather Rodney Wells has called for criminal charges against them. "They're just as guilty," he said.
It took more than 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. We don't know how long it is before Mr Nichols is taken to hospital.
Tyre Nichols died three days later
"The worst part of it was the lack of humanity after the incident," Greg Donaldson, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told the BBC.
The officers "stood around like its as just an afternoon on the street," he says, while leaving Mr Nichols "laying there on the ground like a piece of garbage".
We do not know if there is additional footage that could shed more light on what those attending - 10 officers in total plus the medics - did at the time.
2. Why did police pull him over?
While the four videos contain over an hour of footage total, capturing multiple angles taken from police body cameras and a pole-mounted surveillance camera, one crucial element is missing: how did all this begin?
His family has said that Mr Nichols, an avid photographer, was out driving so he could take pictures of the sunset.
Officers initially said Mr Nichols was pulled over for alleged reckless driving, but police on Friday said there is no evidence to substantiate that claim.
The footage released only begins after police confront him at an intersection at 8:24pm local time - police say the initial traffic stop was not filmed but we don't know why.
Footage of Mr Nichols' fatal encounter with Memphis police
He is immediately dragged out of the car and thrown to the ground by officers with guns drawn.
"I didn't do anything!" Mr Nichols says early on, and he complies with the officers' instructions.
An officer shouts: "Put your hands behind your back before I break your [expletive]."
"You guys are really doing a lot right now," Mr Nichols says to the officers. "I'm just trying to go home."
Later in the video, we hear an officer telling other officers who have arrived at the scene that Mr Nichols swerved and almost hit his police vehicle, but we see no evidence of this.
Another officer claims he thinks Mr Nichols may be "on something," which implies they believed he may have been using drugs. There is no known evidence that this was the case, and later in the video, officers say they did not find anything in his car.
3. Why were the officers so aggressive?
From the get-go, the officers are very hostile, cursing at Mr Nichols and telling him to lie on the ground or they will strike him with a stun gun.
In the videos, Mr Nichols is initially compliant, if confused, by the officers' hostility. He lies down on the ground as instructed, as they attempt to handcuff him.
But when one of them tries to tase him, he breaks free and tries to run, at which point police pepper spray him.
How he broke free, and why police were so aggressive in the first place, is not clear.
"It was incomprehensible, from beginning to end," says Mr Donaldson.
"From the car stop, the state of agitation of the police when they pulled the car over, to the pursuit, to the lack of training and lack of strategy in containing and subduing the person they had stopped."
4. Why did they continue to assault him?
Mr Donaldson says the video seems to show that police anger grows "as their incompetence seems to be more revealed".
Spraying his eyes with water after feeling the effects of the pepper spray himself, one of the officers says they should "stomp" him when they catch him.
That is exactly what they do in the videos that captured the second encounter which began at 8:32pm. For several minutes, police punched and kicked him, in the body and the head, while Mr Nichols cried for his mother. One officer is seen wandering away, breathing heavily. Almost a minute later, he returns to the scene, pulls out his extendable baton and strikes Mr Nichols repeatedly.
None of the officers try to stop him, or another who is seen punching Mr Nichols in the head at least five times.
"This incident just ran out of control," Mr Donaldson says.
5. What is the cause of his death?
Although it is clear Mr Nichols was severely beaten, we still do not know what actually caused his death in hospital three days later.
In the video, we do see police kick him in the head twice, and there is blood visible around his face.
Attorneys for his family have said that an independent autopsy found that he suffered "extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating," but the full report has not been made public.
With additional reporting by Bernd Debusmann, Barbara Plett Usher and Nada Tawfik
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