CNN
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Up to 20 hours of extra footage relating to the deadly Memphis police beating of a 29-year-old Black man has yet to be launched, a prosecutor mentioned Wednesday as his workplace contemplates whether or not to file extra fees within the case.
The unreleased footage surrounding Tyre Nichols’ brutal January 7 visitors cease most notably consists of audio of what was mentioned after the beating and after an ambulance takes Nichols to a hospital, Shelby County prosecutor Steven Mulroy advised CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
When that unseen video will be launched publicly will be up to the town of Memphis and Memphis police, he mentioned.
The metropolis final week released body-camera and surveillance footage displaying what Mulroy mentioned is “the relevant parts” of the preliminary cease and the beating at a second location. But the opposite footage might play a key investigative position.
The launched video already has contradicted what officers said happened in the initial police report filed after Nichols’ beating. And potential fees of “false reporting” associated to the preliminary police report are being investigated, Erica Williams, a spokesperson for Mulroy’s workplace, advised CNN Wednesday.
“The incident report that has gone public does not match up on all fours with what one sees when one looks at the video that’s already been released,” Mulroy mentioned Wednesday.
Such feedback are a sign that that is the newest instance of the arrest of a Black particular person during which the version of events given by authorities doesn’t match up with video or witness accounts. Other situations – such because the deadly encounters involving George Floyd, Ronald Greene and Walter Scott – have led to fees filed in opposition to regulation enforcement officers.
Last week’s release of video of Nichols being repeatedly punched and kicked by police shook a nation lengthy accustomed to movies of police brutality – particularly in opposition to folks of shade – and spurred largely peaceful weekend protests from New York to Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Rev. Al Sharpton and households of different Black folks killed in police encounters got here collectively for Nichols’ funeral, celebrating his life and making renewed requires police reform.
“There should be no other child that should suffer the way my son and all the other parents here (who) have lost their children” have, mentioned RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mom.
The initial police report filed in Memphis instructed Nichols was violent. It additionally made no point out of the officers punching and kicking him.
It claimed Nichols “started to fight” with officers and at one level grabbed the gun of one of the detectives, two issues not seen in police movies launched final week. And though the movies don’t seem to present Nichols preventing again, the report lists Nichols as a suspect in an aggravated assault.
The report additionally describes one of the officers on the scene – one of 5 now charged with second diploma homicide – as a “victim.”
While authorities haven’t launched the police report, a photograph of a police report was posted by a controversial Memphis radio discuss present host. The police report account was first reported by The New York Times.
So far, 5 Memphis law enforcement officials, all of whom are Black, have been fired and charged with second-degree homicide. In addition, two different law enforcement officials have been placed on depart, the SCORPION unit they have been half of was disbanded, three Memphis Fire Department personnel have been fired and two sheriff’s deputies have been placed on depart.
Mulroy has requested the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to expedite its investigation, and all concerned within the encounter are being scrutinized as prosecutors take into account extra fees, he has mentioned.
Those below scrutiny embrace personnel who confirmed up after the beating on the second scene and those that filed paperwork, Mulroy mentioned.
Nichols’ funeral on Wednesday noticed a celebration of the younger man’s life, but in addition a recognition of households of different Black folks killed and a united name for police reform.
His mom remembered him as “a beautiful person” and echoed others in calling for passage of the George Floyd Policing Act.
Harris additionally referred to as Nichols’ dying a second that calls for congressional police reform.
“As vice president of the United States, we demand that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Joe Biden will sign it and we should not delay,” Harris said Wednesday.
That legislation twice cleared the House but it surely by no means went wherever within the Senate. If handed, the act would arrange a nationwide registry of police misconduct to cease officers from evading penalties by transferring to one other jurisdiction.
“Why do we want to see the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed? Because then you have to think twice before you beat Tyre Nichols. You think twice before you shoot at someone unarmed,” Sharpton mentioned.
Sharpton referred to as out the 5 Black former officers charged in Nichols’ dying and invoked Martin Luther King Jr., who was killed in Memphis in 1968.
“In the city that Dr. King lost his life … you beat a brother to death,” Sharpton mentioned.
“There’s nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us that fight to open doors, that you walked through those doors and act like the folks we had to fight for to get you through them doors. You didn’t get on the police department by yourself,” Sharpton mentioned. “The police chief didn’t get there by herself. People had to march and go to jail and some lost their lives to open the doors for you and how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing.”
Nichols’ household is wanting to get justice, not only for them but in addition for all of the households, his stepfather, Rodney Wells, mentioned.
“This is a continuous fight that we have to fight for. We have to fight for justice. We cannot continue to let these people brutalize our kids,” Wells mentioned.
Tyre Nichols’ sister: ‘All I need is my child brother again’
Through tears, Nichols’ mom referred to as the tragedy her household suffered “unimaginable.”
“The only thing that’s keeping me going is the fact that I really, truly believe that my son was sent here on an assignment from God,” she mentioned tearfully at Wednesday’s funeral.
“I guess now his assignment is done and he’s been taken home,” she added.
Nichols’ sister shared recollections of him in the course of the service and mirrored on his dying.
“I see the world showing him love and fighting for his justice, but all I want is my baby brother back,” the sister, Keyana Dixon, mentioned by way of tears.