The father of one had been arrested after being stopped for reckless driving, police said, before being allegedly beaten by the officers for three minutes.
Five black officers involved in the arrest were subsequently sacked after a police investigation found they used excessive force or failed to intervene and help him.
Officials are expected to release bodycam footage of the incident on Friday evening.
“We’re here today because of a tragedy that wounds one family deeply but also hurts us all,” district attorney Steve Mulroy said at a news conference.
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He added that the five officers have been charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping and official misconduct.
The Memphis Police Department identified them as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr, and Justin Smith, who are all black and aged between 24 and 32.
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Each officer had served with the department for around two and a half to five years, and were dismissed from the force last Saturday.
Meanwhile, two Memphis Fire Department employees who were involved in the response were also relieved of their duties during an investigation, a department spokesperson said earlier this week.
President Biden said in a statement: “Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable.
“Tyre’s death is a painful reminder that we must do more to ensure that our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment and dignity for all.”
Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said on Wednesday that other police officers remain under investigation for police infractions.
In a video shared on YouTube, she asked for calm when the bodycam footage is made public.
“I expect you to feel what the Nichols family feels. I expect you to feel outrage in the disregard of basic human rights,” she said.
“I expect our citizens to exercise their First Amendment right to protest, to demand action and results, but we need to ensure our community is safe in this process.”
Several recent incidents of police brutality against black people in the US have sparked outrage and calls for reforms in policing.
Second-degree murder will go a considerable distance in meeting public’s expectations
America has been here before. A black man dead at the hands of police officers, brutality captured on camera.
Rodney King and George Floyd are just two names that define a deadly dysfunction in the institution that exists to protect and serve.
Now add Tyre Nichols – 29 years old, a father and family man who worked at FedEx and enjoyed skateboarding. “Nobody’s perfect,” said his mother RowVaugn. “But he was damn near.”
We are told the events leading up to his death are contained in a video lasting an hour, multiple angles of what has been trailed as a savage assault.
A lawyer for the Nichols family spoke of him being beaten “like a human pinata”. The Friday night release of the footage is shrouded by a sense of dread.
Experience shows it is shocking video content of a sort liable to ignite violent street protests and, in Memphis, they are aware of the danger. It explains why the build-up to the release of the footage has been choreographed around charges for the police officers involved.
In a place where the public demands accountability, laying charges of second-degree murder will go a considerable distance towards matching expectations. Murder in the second degree accuses the officers of knowingly killing Mr Nichols.
Does it make a difference that the five men in uniform were black? Perhaps. Time will tell if, and how, that plays into the wider public response.
Much of the reaction, so far, has focused on the power that police have and the inclination to abuse it with deadly consequences. In video form, evidence of it will soon be laid bare – and Memphis is braced.
The Nichols family watched the police footage on Monday with their lawyer, Ben Crump, who compared the beating to the 1991 Los Angeles police assault on Rodney King that was captured on video and sparked protests and police reforms.
“He was defenceless the entire time. He was a human pinata for those police officers,” Antonio Romanucci, Mr Crump’s co-counsel, told reporters.
Mr Crump said Nichols’ last words heard on the video were of him calling for his mother three times.
A four-month-old baby was among at least five people killed after dozens of tornadoes swept across central parts of the US.
Officials said at least 100 people were injured in Oklahoma, where four of the five died, as the extreme weather flattened buildings, ripped off roofing and threw vehicles down the street.
The destruction was extensive in Sulphur, a rural town of about 5,000 people, as experts said nearly 40 twisters are believed to have carved their way through central areas across the weekend.
It comes after extreme weather left a trail of destruction in other central areas on Friday.
Officials confirmed a man died from injuries sustained in Iowa from a tornado in Pottawattamie County.
Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt was in Sulphur to assess the damage when he declared a disaster emergency for 12 counties.
“You just can’t believe the destruction. It seems like every business downtown has been destroyed,” he said.
“Definitely the most damage since I’ve been governor.”
He added about 30 people were injured in Sulphur, including some who were in a bar as the tornado struck, while thousands of residents were left without power.
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President Joe Biden has offered the full support of the federal government to help with the recovery efforts, the White House said in a statement.
Storm warnings for high winds, heavy rain and hail were issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) on Sunday for more than 47 million people stretching across a large part of the US from eastern Texas towards Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin.
The NWS reported 38 possible twisters struck the central belt with Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri enduring the worst of the weather.
At one point, more than seven million people were placed under tornado warnings.
The authorities said the tornado in Sulphur began in a city park before sweeping through the town, flipping cars and ripping the roofs and walls from buildings.
Sulphur resident Kelly Trussell said: “How do you rebuild it? This is complete devastation. It is crazy, you want to help but where do you start?”
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0:31
Tornado wreaks havoc in Nebraska on Friday
On Friday, a tornado forced an industrial building in Lancaster County, Nebraska, to collapse with 70 people inside.
Several people were trapped, but everyone was rescued, the authorities said. Three people had injuries which were not life-threatening.
The NWS later said there had been possibly two tornadoes which spent around an hour creeping through Nebraska, leaving behind carnage with winds of up to 165mph.
US President Joe Biden has delivered an election-year roasting of his rival Donald Trump, criticising his immaturity.
Speaking at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night, the 81-year-old responded to concerns that he is too old for a second presidential term.
“Yes, age is an issue – I’m a grown man running against a six-year-old,” he said, referring to his 77-year-old Republican opponent.
But in a more serious moment, the president told the gathered reporters: “I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides.
“I’m asking you to rise up to the seriousness of the moment.
“Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalise our politics, and focus on what’s actually at stake.”
Mr Biden did not acknowledge the hundreds of demonstrators standing outside the event calling for an end to US support of Israel.
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Earlier, he had arrived at the venue through a back entrance, avoiding most of the protesters.
Outside the main entrance, some shouted “Shame on you!”, running after well-dressed attendees as they hurried inside for the dinner.
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Some chanted accusations that US journalists are not paying enough attention to the war and are misrepresenting it, shouting: “Western media, we see you and all the horrors that you hide”.
They were not alone – more than two dozen journalists in Gaza wrote a letter last week calling on their US-based colleagues to boycott the dinner.
The letter said: “The toll exacted on us for merely fulfilling our journalistic duties is staggering.
“We are subjected to detentions, interrogations and torture by the Israeli military – all for the ‘crime’ of journalistic integrity.”
Israel declared war on Hamas and launched an air and ground offensive in Gaza in response to the attack on southern Israel on 7 October, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took another 250 hostages.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has conducted near-daily raids as it prepares for a possible offensive in the city.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed during the Israel-Hamas war, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
At the beginning of April, Reporters Without Borders said more than 105 journalists had been killed in the area since 7 October, with at least 22 of them killed in the course of their work.
The protests outside the correspondents’ dinner come as a protest movement sweeps across US universities – a growing revolt within a demographic Mr Biden will need to beat Mr Trump.
Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s lawyer, said his client was moved to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan for tests after his arrival on Friday at a New York City prison.
“They examined him and sent him to Bellevue. It seems like he needs a lot of help, physically. He’s got a lot of problems. He’s getting all kinds of tests. He’s somewhat of a train wreck health-wise,” Mr Aidala said.
The hospital did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Mr Aidala said he is still “sharp as a tack” mentally, and his health problems are physical.
Weinstein has had cardiac issues, diabetes, sleep apnea and eye problems for some time.
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He was moved on Friday to the Rikers Island jail complex, in The Bronx’s East River, from the Mohawk Correctional Facility, in Oneida County, upstate New York, where he had been since 2023.
“He was not treated well. They refused to give him even a sip of water, no food, no bathroom break,” said Mr Aidala.
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“He’s a 72-year-old sickly man.”
Frank Dwyer, a spokesperson with the New York City Department of Correction, said Weinstein remains in custody at Bellevue Hospital.
The disgraced producer has been in prison since 2020 and on Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals overturned his first rape conviction.
He has been serving a 23-year sentence after being accused of sexually assaulting ex-production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006 and raping former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 following the landmark 2020 trialin New York.
The state’s highest court found the judge at the trial prejudiced Weinstein with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that were not part of the case.
In a 4-3 decision, the court’s majority said it was “an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behaviour”.
Mr Aidala said the decision was a victory for the defendant and any American charged with a crime, “no matter how popular or unpopular they are”.
“You can’t convict someone based on their entire life,” he said.
“You can’t allow more witnesses to testify against the defendant than the defendant is actually charged with.”
“You can’t throw out a hundred years of legal precedent because someone is unpopular.”
Weinstein remains in jail despite the recent ruling because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape, against which he is also appealing. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for that crime.
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Me Too founder ‘devastated’ by Weinstein decision
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg – who is already involved in a hush money trial against former president Donald Trump – will now decide whether Weinstein will face a retrial for his 2020 conviction.
A spokesperson for Mr Bragg said in an email: “We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault.”
Weinstein is scheduled to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court at 2.15pm (local time) on Wednesday in a hearing that will set a timetable for future appearances, assuming the retrial goes ahead.
Deborah Tuerkheimer, a professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said whether there is a second trial will “hinge on the preferences of the women who would have to testify again and endure the ordeal of a retrial.”
“I think ultimately this will come down to whether they feel it’s something they want to do, are able to do,” she said.
Once considered the most powerful man in Hollywood, Weinstein was accused by dozens of women who claimed he bullied, pressured, coerced, or overpowered them while demanding sexual favours.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, and Lupita Nyong’o all accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, while actresses Asia Argento and Rose McGowan were among others who accused him of raping them.
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He was also accused of reaching settlements to keep the stories quiet.
Weinstein had admitted his behaviour had “caused a lot of pain”, but has maintained his innocence throughout, saying any sexual activity was consensual.