Tyre Nichols: ‘Our lives matter;’ People gather in Dayton after release of Memphis Police video
Protestors are calling for justice more than 24 hours after Memphis Police released graphic body camera video of officers beating Tyre Nichols. He died three days after Memphis officers pulled him over on Jan. 7.
All five of those officers have been fired and charged with second degree murder and other crimes in connection to Nichols’ death.
>>PHOTOS: Tyre Nichols: People gather in Dayton
Black Lives Matter Dayton organized a protest at the Dayton Federal Building in Downtown Dayton Saturday afternoon.
News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott said more than a dozen protesters were chanting with signs and multiple speakers were calling change.
All were outraged over the body camera video released by the Memphis Police Department that shows five officers beating Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop.
“We got a right to fight no just for civil rights, but for human rights,” one speaker said.
>>Tyre Nichols death: Memphis’ SCORPION police unit permanently deactivated
Tania Hudson was also protesting and told News Center 7 she knows what it is like to lose a son at the hands of a police officer.
“My son Deonte Bell was shot and killed by Columbus Police seven years ago,” said Hudson.
She said she knows the pain Nichols’ mother must be in.
“I was devastated by the pain that the mother is going to experience by the rest of her life,” Hudson told News Center 7.
Especially with people with all over the country watching the body cam video.
“To look and see what they done to her son is unbearable,” said Hudson. “It set me to ground zero. It made me even angrier that our own color that violated another brother.”
>>Tyre Nichols: ‘Inhumane act of violence;’ President of Dayton NAACP speaks on Memphis Police video
McDermott says the officers who killed Nichols have been fired from the Memphis Police Department and are facing second degree murder charges. But Hudson believes there needs to be more accountability across the country.
“Holding everyone accountable for our actions is what we all need to do,” she told News Center 7.
Hudson does not call the gathering Saturday a protest but rather a movement.
“Our lives matter, yours, mine,” she said. “Our lives matter. I pray in my lifetime that I get an opportunity to see change for my grandchildren.”
Hudson said she felt honored people came together Saturday for this movement but thought more people should have been out there standing together.
