US Vice President Kamala Harris and George Floyd’s brother will attend the funeral of Tire Nichols, the young African American whose fatal beatings at the hands of black police officers shocked the country, in Memphis on Wednesday.
• Also read: Arrest of Tire Nichols: Three members of the Memphis Fire Department fired
According to the police, the 29-year-old was arrested by agents of a special unit in Memphis in the southern United States on January 7 for a simple traffic violation. But beaten so badly that his family said he was unrecognizable, he died in hospital three days later.
The case had prompted authorities to fear a social conflagration comparable to that which followed the 2020 death of George Floyd at the knee of a white police officer.
Philonise Floyd, one of the latter’s brothers, will also be present at the funeral, according to the law firm representing Tyre Nichols’ family.
“On February 1, the vice president will travel to Memphis, Tennessee to attend Tire Nichols’ funeral,” the US executive said in a statement.
Ben Crump, the Tire Nichols family attorney – who also represented the Floyd family – said in a press release that the vice president made this trip at the invitation of the young man’s parents.
In one call, which he described as “charged with emotion,” “the Vice President was able to comfort Ms. Wells (mother of Tire Nichols, ed.) and even make her smile. Tire’s parents invited Vice President Harris to the funeral tomorrow and were pleased that she accepted their invitation,” said Ben Crump.
reform
For his part, President Joe Biden plans to receive members of the parliamentary group that will bring together African-American elected officials at the White House on Thursday to “discuss police reform legislation and other shared priorities,” said Olivia Dalton, a spokeswoman for the executive board.
“President Biden is determined to do everything in his power (…) to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to expectations of impartial justice (…) and dignity for all,” she added.
Harrowing footage of Tire Nichols being arrested and beaten by officers was shown uncut by the country’s biggest networks last week.
The five police officers involved were fired and charged with murder. The SCORPION unit they belonged to, which aimed to reduce illegal activity in sensitive neighborhoods by deploying more police there, was disbanded.
Three firefighters were fired in connection with the matter and two other police officers were suspended.
On Wednesday, Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights figure, will deliver the eulogy for Tire Nichols at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis.
The service is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. local time.
In addition to George Floyd’s brother, Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, will also attend, according to the law firm.
Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American woman, was shot dead in her Kentucky apartment in the middle of the night in 2020 and became an icon of the Black Lives Matter movement.