Voices: ‘What happened to this world.’ Another unarmed Black man has been killed by police and his mother wants answers

“What we can tell you about the video – it is appalling, it is deplorable, it is heinous, it is violent, it is very troublesome on every level.”

Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump insisted the entire nation will soon get to see for itself the video footage of the arrest that led to the death – a few days later – of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols following a traffic stop.

For now, we have been left with those words, and another powerful, jolting connection, that the footage reminded Crump of the video of the notorious 1991 police beating of Rodney King.

As Crump pointed out, King did survive the beating at the hands of white police officers in Los Angeles three decades ago.

Tyre, allegedly assaulted by up to five Black police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was shocked, pepper sprayed, and treated like “a human piñata”, did not.

There is so much that is uniquely appalling about the death of the young father after the traffic stop on 7 January, a few hundred metres from home.

One is that yet another child has been left without a father.

And just as the last desperate words of both Eric Garner, killed by police in New York City, and George Floyd, murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, were “I can’t breathe”, Tyre’s equally helpless confusion was captured in his: “What did I do wrong?”

Yet as Crump and his fellow attorney, Antonio Romanucci, underscored as they and the family of the young man spoke to the media in Tennessee on Monday, what is equally awful is how so many of these police killings echo one another.

They are the same but different and yet they keep happening.

“You have to ask yourself, yet again, we’re seeing evidence of what happens to Black and brown people from simple traffic stops. Simple traffic stops. You should not be killed because of a civil traffic stop,” said Crump.

“And we have to say to America: how you would treat our white brothers and sisters when you have a traffic stop with them, we have to treat Black and brown citizens the same way.”

Crump said the Memphis police chief, Cerelyn “CJ” Davis, a Black woman and mother, spoke to Tyre’s family, and was very emotional when she did so.

“She said she was not proud of what we were about to see,” said Crump.

Crump said the family would press for justice, and had the backing of the community.

Crump appears to be a well meaning, dedicated man who has secured national attention for many killings and crimes that may otherwise not have secured media attention. A 29-year-old father died after a traffic stop. The family lawyer says the footage “reminded us of Rodney King”.

• A 29-year-old father died after a traffic stop. The family lawyer says the footage ‘reminded us of Rodney King’

• Tyre Nichols - live: Family say bodycam video shows Memphis police beating him like Rodney King before death

Yet he must surely know that his presence at press conferences such as that on Monday has also become part of the ritual and furniture of these horrific events. It is America’s tragedy that people such as Ben Crump are required so frequently.

Tyre’s family described the FedEx worker and father of a four-year-old boy as “good kid who loved skateboarding and photography”.

Crump said he had been asked what he thought about the fact five Black police officers were apparently involved.

“What I have come to learn from doing this civil rights work against excessive force policing is that it is not the race of the police officer that is a determinable factor of the amount of excessive force that will be exerted, it is the race of the citizen,” he said.

Nichols’ stepfather Rodney Wells, who said the family wanted the officers – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr, and Justin Smith – charged with first-degree murder, told reporters that his stepson had good reason to run from the officers.

“Our son ran because he was scared for his life,” Rodney Wells said. “And when you see the video, you’ll see why he was scared for his life.”

When the young man’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, spoke she said she swung from being overcome with grief to bewilderment.

“It’s just so hard to even fathom all of this because it’s not even real to me right now. I don’t have any feelings right now …All I know is my son Tyree is not here with me anymore. He will never walk through that door again,” she said.

The family had been told his last words were to ask for his mother.

She added: “I just don’t understand why we have to have all this violence and everybody killing each other. I mean, what happened to this world.”