Tire Nichols’ funeral to be held in Memphis on Wednesday: NPR

A mourner sits next to a display of candles during a vigil for Tire Nichols on January 30 at the Regency Community Skatepark in Sacramento, California. Nichols was an avid skateboarder and used to frequent the park.

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A mourner sits next to a display of candles during a vigil for Tire Nichols on January 30 at the Regency Community Skatepark in Sacramento, California. Nichols was an avid skateboarder and used to frequent the park.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Tire Nichols’ funeral is set to take place in Memphis on Wednesday, about three weeks after he died following a beating by police that was caught on camera and sparked a wave of protests and calls for accountability across the country. the country.

Reverend Al Sharpton will deliver Nichols’ eulogy and Ben Crump, an attorney for Nichols’ family, will issue a “call to action”, organizers said.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to attend the funeral at the invitation of Nichols’ family. Tamika Palmer, mother of Breonna Taylor, and Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, are also expected.

Services at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis are scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Central Time. Organizers said the funeral would be streamed live on Facebook and YouTube.

Nichols died on January 10, three days after being brutally beaten by police during a traffic stop. He was 29 years old.

Body camera video shows officers arresting Nichols on Jan. 7 on suspicion of reckless driving. They pull Nichols out of his car and attempt to arrest him, but he flees.

When police finally caught up with him at a second location, officers kicked him, hit him with batons and hit him repeatedly on the head in a violent encounter also captured by a nearby surveillance camera.

Five Memphis police officers have been fired and charged with Nichols’ murder, and two other officers are facing disciplinary action. The city fire department fired two paramedics and a lieutenant. The Memphis Police Department also disbanded the specialty unit whose officers beat Nichols.

Nichols’ death drew national attention and drew comparisons to other cases in which black people were killed at the hands of police, including Taylor and Floyd. President Biden said the video of officers beating Nichols left him “outraged and deeply pained”.

An avid skateboarder, Nichols had a 4-year-old son, worked at FedEx with his stepfather, and had his mother’s name tattooed on him.