The not guilty verdict was still echoing across Memphis as Tyre Nichols’ family and supporters gathered in front of the National Civil Rights Museum Thursday to make sense of the trial’s outcome.
Three former Memphis police officers had escaped seven charges apiece, ranging from second degree murder to official misconduct for their role in Nichols’ fatal arrest.
Multiple body worn and a police surveillance camera captured five officers initially charged in the case either restraining, kicking, punching or striking Nichols with a baton after he ran from a traffic stop in 2023.
Two of those involved intend to plead guilty to state charges.
“Change will come,” said Tyre’s friend, Angelina Paxton. “It will come when white folks take the time to understand what it takes to live with Black skin. So that way a jury of your peers is really a jury of your peers.”
That jury, largely white, and brought in from East Tennessee, has, so far, born the brunt of criticism from community activists like Kareem Ali.
“And they were all pro-police,” Ali said. “The community is not under any illusion. When they saw the jury was not from the City of Memphis, a jury of their peers, Tyre Nichols’ peers, we knew that it would be a miscarriage of justice.”
Nichols step-father, Rodney Wells, said the jury’s decision represents a setback for activists looking to reform policing in Black communities.
“This message is a world-wide message,” Wells said. “This ain’t a message just in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s not stabilized here. It’s a stain on the justice system.”
While organizers such as Amber Sherman are disappointed in the lack of closure, the verdict has energized their efforts to reform local policing.
“As organizers, we’re going to keep pressuring them to follow the ordinances that we passed almost two years ago,” Sherman said. “They should not be doing pre-textual stops and the state is trying to convince them that they can, and they cannot.”
She adds that while Mayor Paul Young has been receptive to organizers, she and others aren’t asking for condolences.
“It’s not that we need healing,” she said. “The only people who are hurting us are the police.”
All five officers involved either pleaded guilty or were found guilty of some federal charges last year. Rodney Wells is still hoping to see justice in their sentencing next month.
“That’s the only thing that we have a little solace about is the fact that we know that they are going to jail,” Wells said.
This post has been updated to state five officers were captured on video footage and charged in the incident.
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