Tyre Nichols' mother describes seeing her son in the hospital
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
Tyre Nichols' mother spoke to CNN about seeing her son in the hospital after his traffic stop.
"Around 4:00 in the morning, the doctors called from St. Francis and said, 'Mrs. Wells, do you know your son's in the hospital?' And I said, 'yes, I was advised by the police officers.' He said, 'why aren't you here?' And I said, 'the police officers said that I couldn't come, because he was under arrest.' The doctor proceeded to tell me that my son had went into cardiac arrest and that his kidneys were failing," RowVaughn Wells told CNN about why she was delayed in getting to her son.
She said her son was "already gone" by the time she and her husband got to the hospital.
"They had beat him to a pulp. He had bruises all over him. His head was swollen like a watermelon. His neck was busting because of the swelling — they broke his neck. My son's nose looked like an 'S.' They actually just beat the crap out of him," she said in an emotional interview with CNN.
"Even if he did live, he would have been a vegetable," she added.
By the time she got to the hospital, she said the police officers has been "whisked away" and heard that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation " had taken over the investigation."
Memphis police chief says department has not been able to substantiate reckless driving stop of Tyre Nichols
From CNN’s Amanda Watts and Andi Babineau
In her first interview since the death of Tyre Nichols, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said the police department has been unable to find anything that's substantiated the probable cause for reckless driving.
Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon on Friday, Davis said, “We've looked at cameras, we've looked at body worn cameras, and even if something occurred prior to this stop, we've been unable to substantiate that. At this time.”
“So of course in an investigation, we begin to look at what was the probable cause for the stop? Where were the cameras? Was there some evidence on the body camera, on other cameras along those thoroughfares and we've taken a pretty extensive look to determine, you know, what that probable cause was, and we have not been able to substantiate that — it doesn't mean that something didn't happen, but there's no proof,” she said.
The city of Memphis plans to release video of Nichols' arrest sometime after 6 p.m. local time (7 p.m. ET) Friday, according to Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
Paramedics failed to render Nichols "proper care," Memphis police chief says
From CNN’s Amanda Watts
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said paramedics who were at the scene at some point during the Tyre Nichols traffic stop “failed to render proper care.”
“Based on the video, they failed to render proper care, and it's just based on my assessment,” she told CNN Friday in her first interview since the incident.
The care came "several minutes" after, she said, adding that it was “concerning for all of us, that we see a number of failures where individuals did not exercise the amount of care that we are responsible for — no matter what the cause is we are responsible for exercising care.”
Davis noted that the fire chief also quickly began an investigation into their actions on scene.
Nichols suffered “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to preliminary results of an autopsy commissioned by attorneys for his family.
“We can state that preliminary findings indicate Tyre suffered extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating, and that his observed injuries are consistent with what the family and attorneys witnessed on the video of his fatal encounter with police on January 7, 2023,” attorney Benjamin Crump said in a statement.
CNN has asked Crump for a copy of the autopsy commissioned by the family, but he said the full report is not yet ready. Officials have also not released Nichols’ autopsy.
CNN's Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this post.
Tyre Nichols' arrest video will be released on YouTube in four parts, Memphis police chief says
From CNN’s Amanda Watts
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said the department will release the video of Tyre Nichols' traffic stop in four parts on YouTube.
“The video is broken into four different sort of fragmented pieces,” that are all relative to the incident, she told CNN Friday.
The department plans “to post it on a YouTube link so that it can be accessible to just about anybody who wants to access that video,” Davis said.
The video will show the initial stop, the stop near Nichols' home, and also body-worn camera of individual officers, she noted.
Davis said the video showing the beating of Tyre Nichols is as bad, if not worse than Rodney King in 1992. “I was in law enforcement during the Rodney King incident, and it's very much aligned with that same type of behavior.”
“I would say it's about the same if not worse,” she added.
Tyre Nichols' arrest video will show "acts that defy humanity," Memphis police chief says
From CNN’s Amanda Watts
In her first interview since the death of Tyre Nichols, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said she learned of the incident around 4 a.m. local time the next morning after, and she saw the video of his arrest the following Sunday.
She told CNN she was “outraged" when she first saw the video.
“I was it was incomprehensible to me, it was unconscionable. And I felt that I needed to do something and do something quickly,” she said Friday. “I don't think I've witnessed anything of that nature my entire career.”
The video shows “acts that defy humanity,” she said. “You're going to see a disregard for life a duty of care that we're all sworn to and a level of physical interaction that is above and beyond what is required in law enforcement.”
The officers from the start of the traffic stop were “riled up,” Davis said. “There was an amount of aggression that is unexplainable.”
Davis pointed to a “group think mentality" she says she saw on the video.
“What I saw on this video was more of a group sort of mentality, you know, a group and no one took a step to intercept or intervene and that's why the charges are so severe,” she added.
All 5 officers indicted are responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols, district attorney says
From CNN’s Jamiel Lynch
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said that the five officers indicted are all responsible for the death of Tyre Nichols.
A grand jury returned indictments against Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Desmond Mills, charging each with:
"While each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tyre Nichols, and they are all responsible," Mulroy said during a news conference Thursday.
The officers are currently in custody, he added.
Mulroy went on to explain why there are charges of aggravated kidnapping in Nichols' case.
"Kidnapping is any unlawful confinement of another which substantially restrains someone's liberty. At a certain point in the sequence of events, it is our view that this, if it was a legal detention to begin with — it certainly became illegal at a certain point and it was unlawful detention. The aggravated nature of the charge is because if that kidnapping resulted in bodily injury, that's one grounds for saying that it is aggravated kidnapping. If the persons involved in that unlawful restraint of liberty possessed weapons, that is another ground for saying that the kidnapping was aggravated," he said.
Nichols died three days after he was pulled over for alleged reckless driving by Memphis Police Department officers, as CNN previously reported.
In a statement, police claimed confrontations ensued between Nichols and the officers. After he was taken into custody, police said, Nichols complained he was having shortness of breath and was taken to a local hospital, where he later died.
