Three weeks after Tyre Nichols’ death as a result of a horrific beating by Memphis police following a traffic stop, his family intends to lay him to rest on Wednesday.
Five police officers have been sacked and charged with murder within those three weeks, and their specialized squad has been dismantled. There have been two more suspended police. Two emergency medical personnel from the Memphis Fire Department and a lieutenant were also discharged. And there might be a rise in discipline.
But on Wednesday, the focus will be on Nichols, a 29-year-old skateboarder and amateur photographer who constructed boxes for FedEx, made friends at Starbucks in the mornings, and always greeted his mother and stepfather with a cheery “Hello, parents!” when he got home.
Their youngest child, Nichols, arrived 12 years after his siblings. According to his family, he worked hard to become a better parent to his 4-year-old son.
Sacramento, California-native Nichols grew up rooting for the San Francisco 49ers. He became detained in Memphis since he arrived there just before the coronavirus pandemic. She added that despite their deep bond, he was okay with it because he was with his mother, RowVaughn Wells. Even his arm was tattooed with her name.
At a memorial service this week, friends remembered him as happy and kind, quick to grin, and frequently goofy.
According to Angelina Paxton, a friend who traveled to Memphis from California for the memorial service, “This man walked into a room, and everyone loved him.”
The funeral service for Nichols will start at 10:30 a.m. CST at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. The National Action Network’s founder and president, the Rev. Al Sharpton, will give the eulogy. The Nichols family is represented by national civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who will issue a call to action.
At Mason Temple Church of God in Christ in Memphis on Tuesday night, Sharpton assembled members of Nichols’ family and neighborhood activists. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his farewell speech at the place in roughly 55 years ago, the night before he was killed.
The family wanted a “dignified funeral service, not a marathon,” according to Sharpton.
The preacher declared, “This is about justice, not politics. People are arriving from all over the world, and we are coming because, as of at this moment, we are all Tyre.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Breonna Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer, and George Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd are among anticipated attendees.
Protests against racial injustice spread across the country after the killings of Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, and Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of the police.
»Latest victim of Police brutality, racism in America – Tyre Nichols’s family prepares to bury him«