Tyre Nichols funeral: Sharpton delivers fiery eulogy, Harris calls for police reform

Memorial services were held Wednesday for the 29-year-old who died after being beaten by police in Memphis during a traffic stop.

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Mourners gathered Wednesday for the funeral of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died after being brutally beaten by police in Memphis during a traffic stop last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the service inside Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in the city at the urging of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered a fiery eulogy.

“You don’t fight crime by becoming criminals yourself,” Sharpton said of the officers charged in Nichols’s death. “You don't stand up to thugs in the street becoming thugs yourself. You don’t fight gangs by becoming five armed men against an unarmed man. That ain’t the police. That’s punks.”

Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor; Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd; and filmmaker Spike Lee were also in attendance at the service, which was delayed by an ice storm and lasted more than two hours.

Yahoo News is providing live updates from the funeral as well as key developments in the case.