And what many feared
would be a night of violence
was largely peaceful,
with protests
across the country in New York.
Three people were arrested,
one for breaking the windshield
of a patrol car.
But overall,
what we saw were calm
and peaceful protests
Amara.
I want to bring in CNN's
Sara Sidner
to this conversation here in Memphis.
And Sara, you spent the night
with protesters.
You visited the scene where we watched
that horrible video
where all of that unfolded
when you were with the protesters.
They got on the interstate.
What were they sharing with you?
What were they calling for?
You know,
they wanted people to see them
and see what had happened here
and make sure that
the community, not just here,
but around the country, understood
that there is a problem with policing
and that they wanted to see changes.
And they talked about
whether or not they were
satisfied.
I guess, if
you will, with the charges, satisfied
with the response
from the police department
for the firings of the officers,
which came very swiftly,
and then these charges,
which included
second degree murder,
aggravated kidnaping, aggravated assault.
But, you know,
when they saw the video,
they just felt there's so much more
that has happened before this
that could have stopped this.
And so they're unsatisfied
with what has happened here.
I know everyone has been praising
the police chief and praising the D.A.
for going forward
with charges so quickly,
because that is unusual.
And we've seen many cases
where it's taken up to a year
for anything to happen
and sometimes nothing at all.
But when they saw the video
and they knowing what has happened
to some of them
in the past with their interactions
with police, they were unsatisfied.
They said this
should never have happened.
And because things weren't done
before this happened,
to some of these units,
like the Scorpio unit,
we have this situation
where a 29 year old who was a free
spirit ends up losing his life.
So there was anger,
there was frustration,
there was a lot of pain,
but there was no destruction.
There was no violence.
They disrupted traffic.
They moved on after an hour or so.
And that was the end of it.
It has been a very peaceful,
mostly prayerful time here in Memphis.
But they want to see major reforms
and they want to see it now.
And the family's
attorney, Ben Crump,
pointed out
that only a few days
before the incident with Tyree,
another person in this community
had complained
about that
Scorpion unit
saying that they had used excessive
force on him.
What is the sense that you're
getting from the community
and from leaders in the community
about how likely change is to come?
Well, we're getting a clue
when it comes to particularly
the Scorpion unit.
The police chief
has basically put that unit on hold.
The unit was put in place
for crime suppression.
The family
and their attorneys say
it turned into oppression of citizens.
They were just sort of
after people in their minds
looking for people as
suspects
instead of looking at people as citizens.
And so right now,
that has been put on hold.
What the family is asking for
is that and their attorneys
is that they disband this
group altogether.
Whether or not that will happen,
we do not know.
But there is sort of an investigation
they put on hold underway
and you may see more people either
lose their jobs
or be put on administrative leave
beside those two sheriff's deputies,
because I think we counted more than nine
people who were out there at the time.
There's also the question
that sticks in everyone's mind,
the fire members of the fire
department who were there.
They are they're not as law enforcement.
They are there to save lives and help.
And if that's not what they did
and just sit around then that is why
they have
been, you know,
sort of
they haven't been fired yet
because they have to go
through a process.
But there is a lot of questions,
sort of the duty to intervene
and the duty to do their work
to try to save someone.
So there's a lot of questions here.
Imagine
you're a person going through this
and the people sent there to
to to be the rescue do nothing.
That really hurt a lot of people as well.
It was one of the most painful parts
of watching all of that footage
that as they're holding on to him
and beating him
when he presents, no threat
to any of the officers around him.
Nobody intervenes.
And then he's just slumped over
and it appears negligent.
It appears that they're not
actually tending to him
as they're talking about what happened.
Sir, I'm curious
to get your perspective on this,
because as we noted before
and we were talking to
defense attorney Shan Wu earlier
this morning,
he makes the case that
there was nothing in the footage
that shows
a provocation
or a threat
that Tyree poses at any moment.
In fact,
if this was a traffic stop,
why are they pulling him
out of the car to begin with? Right.
Have you gotten any indication
from perhaps
law enforcement
or from defense attorneys
that there might be some explanation
for how aggravated
the officers
were as they approached the scene?
The simple answer to
that is no from the D.A.,
no from the police.
They have not found evidence
leading up to this
to in any way, shape or form
that there was a reckless driving
and be any reason for this to get so hot
so fast and be so aggressive.
What you do hear on the tape
is officers sound
very angry
when they pepper spray
because the pepper spray blows
back in their face
and they blame it on Tyree Nichols.
Not on themselves.
The ones that sprayed the pepper spray
so close up,
they blame it both to officers.
You hear them blaming
Terry Nichols for this.
So you could hear the sort of swell,
the heightened emotions.
And one person described
this as in their minds,
they looked like a pack of wolves.
The group mentality happened.
There was a gang mentality that happened.
And they just all of them in a fury
went after him.
And you can hear him saying
you're doing too much, like,
what are you doing?
What did I do
when he's screaming for his mother?
And this will sit with me
for the rest of my life
when he's screaming for his mom
and saying it over and over again,
she's about 80 yards away.
She said
And she truly believes
he actually was hoping she could hear him
and she couldn't
be there for her son in his last moments.
And that will never leave her mind.
And she said,
I don't even know how to process that.
And who would. Right.
Before we go, Sara,
I just want to make sure
that for our viewers
who have watched that footage,
it's agonizing
but we do want to share
who Tyree Nichols was
and paint him in a different light
than just the person that the victim
that you see in that footage.
You mentioned that he was a free spirit.
His mom talks about him
being a photographer
who like to photograph sunsets.
She said that he was a skater.
What else stands out to you
when you hear those details
from his family?
You know, we went and looked.
He has a photography site
where he would
regularly go out
and take beautiful pictures of Memphis.
But when the sun is setting
and they are beautiful pictures, he
that was his passion.
He was working at FedEx.
He was working, by the way,
with his father.
They both worked at FedEx.
And the thing that also stuck with me
is that he would come home
almost every night for dinner
with his family.
He'd walk in and say, hi, family.
And she says, I'll never hear that again.
And I don't know how to live with that.
That is
such a painful note.
Sara, thank you so much.
We know
there might be demonstrations later.
So look forward to your reporting
on that.
Always appreciate being on site for us.