Tyre Nichols’ mother says she’s ‘not going to stop’ until those responsible for her son’s death face justice

Published

3 years ago

January 29, 2023

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The mother of Tyre Nichols has said she is “not going to stop” until every person responsible for her son’s death “is prosecuted to the fullest of law”.

RowVaughn Wells was speaking to US news network MSNBC a day after Memphis Police released bodycam footage showing her son screaming “mom, mom” several times as he was attacked by officers.

Ms Wells said: “I believe in my heart that my son was on assignment from God. He finished his assignment and God took him back home.

“Even though this tragedy happened to my son, I truly believe that there is going to be a greater good that comes out of this.

“And that is what keeps me going to get this justice for my son, because I’m not going to stop until every person that had anything to do with my son’s death is prosecuted to the fullest of the law.”

Warning: This article contains violent images

Ms Wells went on to say that the officers she believes killed her son had “shamed their own families” and continued: “You shame your communities. You just brought a bad taste to everybody’s mouth.

“I hate the fact that it was five black men that actually did this to another black man. My son probably was their age.

“They just brought disgrace to themselves. I’m not an evil person, my son is not an evil person…. I pray for (the officers’) families, because their families didn’t deserve any of this either.”

Ms Wells and Mr Nichols’ stepfather also repeated their call for people to protest in a non-violent way.

Mr Nichol’s mother earlier said in the same interview: “Tyre was a beautiful person, he was full of life, as you can see he loved to skateboard, he loved to watch the sunsets. He was a great dad.

“He was just a good person. There’s no perfect person in this world, but he was close to it.”

Ms Wells has spoken after Memphis Police announced the SCORPION (Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in Our Neighbourhoods) unit, that the five officers charged with murder over the father-of-one’s death were members of, has been “permanently deactivated”.

Memphis Police said in a statement: “In the process of listening intently to the family of Tyre Nichols, community leaders, and the uninvolved officers who have done quality work in their assignments, it is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the SCORPION unit.

“The officers currently assigned to the unit agree unreservedly with this next step.

“While the heinous actions of a few casts a cloud of dishonour on the title SCORPION, it is imperative that we, the Memphis Police Department take proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted.”

The move comes after Memphis Police released bodycam footage showing Mr Nichols screaming for his mother while being beaten by officers.

The footage shows police attacked the 29-year-old for three minutes while shouting profanities at him.

Mr Nichols was 80 yards (73 metres) from his family home, according to his mother.

Police have released four separate videos cut into one hour-long clip, including police bodycam footage and footage from a CCTV camera.

Five officers have been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes, including assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression over Mr Nichols’ death.

In the footage of the attack, one camera shows the initial police stop at an intersection in Memphis, Tennessee.

“I’m going to baton the f*** out of you,” one officer can be heard saying. His body camera shows him raise his baton while at least one other officer holds Mr Nichols.

After the first officer roughly pulls Mr Nichols out of his car just after 8:20pm on 7 January this year, the FedEx worker can be heard saying “I didn’t do anything” as a group of officers begins to wrestle him to the ground.

“Get on the ground!,” one officer yells, as another is heard shouting: “Tase him! Tase him!”

The father-of-one calmly replied soon after being wrestled to the pavement: “OK, I’m on the ground.”

Moments later, as the officers continue to shout, Mr Nichols says: “Man, I am on the ground.”

An officer yells: “Put your hands behind your back before I break your (expletive).”

Moments later an officer shouts: “Put your hands behind your back before I break them.”

“You guys are really doing a lot right now,” Mr Nichols says loudly to the officers. “I’m just trying to go home.”

“Stop, I’m not doing anything,” he yells moments later.

The camera is briefly obscured and then Mr Nichols can be seen running as an officer fires a Taser at him. The officers then start chasing Mr Nichols.

He is then punched, kicked and hit with a baton. After the beating, officers mill about for several minutes while Mr Nichols lies propped up against the car, then slumps onto the street.

Emergency workers with what looks like medical equipment attend, but do not immediately intervene.

He died on 10 January, three days after the violent arrest.

The officers involved have been dismissed by Memphis Police Department’s Chief of Police, Cerelyn Davis.

Ms Davis, who became the force’s first black female boss in 2021, previously called for “sweeping changes and police reform” in the aftermath of the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, influential civil rights campaigner Al Sharpton said the US has a “new clock” on police accountability following the quick arrest and firing of five officers charged over the death of Mr Nichols.

Speaking at a rally in Harlem, New York, Reverend Sharpton also rejected the idea that there was no race element to the fatal beating of Mr Nichols by the officers just because they themselves are black.

Making a speech at a weekly National Action Network rally, he said: “So there’s a new precedent set now ‘cos this black women police chief messed you up now – ‘cos she said I’m not waiting on nothing – arrest them, fire them.

“You now got a new clock on police accountability. We don’t want to hear no year investigation.”

Addressing the involvement of race, he said: “One person said to me well at least it ain’t about race.

“I said the race part of it is those black guys thought they could get away with doing it to a black guy.

“You know you couldn’t get away with doing that in Tennessee to a white guy – and you won’t get away with doing it to a black guy either.”

Meanwhile, at a news conference of city leaders held on Saturday, state representative Joe Towns Jr, echoed the comments of Reverend Sharpton on the force’s prompt investigation.

He also said police chief Ms Davis had his full support, praising her for taking “swift action”.

The comments came as a memorial fund set up in the aftermath of Mr Nichols topped $535,000 (£433,000).

The GoFundMe page, set up by Mr Nichols’ mother, is aimed at helping to pay for a memorial skate park in his honour, as well as to allow his family time off from their jobs to grieve and seek justice.

Protests are taking place in at least nine cities across the US – including Memphis – after the bodycam footage was released.

Mr Nichols’ mother had earlier warned supporters of the “horrific” nature of the video but pleaded for peace saying “tearing up the streets” is “not what my son stood for”.

US President Joe Biden said he was “outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death”.

“It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that black and brown Americans experience every single day,” he added.

US

Trump says he will cancel all Biden executive orders ‘signed with autopen’

Published

23 hours ago

November 29, 2025

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Trump says he will cancel all Biden executive orders 'signed with autopen'

Donald Trump has said he will cancel all executive orders that he claims were signed with an autopen by his predecessor Joe Biden.

The US president alleged Mr Biden was “not involved” in signing the orders and claimed “the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the presidency away from him”. He did not provide any evidence for his claims.

An autopen is a device which reproduces a person’s signature, allowing them to repeatedly sign documents without having to do so by hand each time.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said: “Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect.

“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States.”

He added: “I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.

“Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury.”

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed Mr Biden was not mentally capable by the end of his term and his staff made decisions on his behalf, using an autopen to sign them off without his knowledge.

Mr Trump has not provided any evidence for his claims, while Mr Biden and his former aides have denied they made decisions on his behalf.

In June, Mr Biden said: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.

“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”

Mr Trump has also used an autopen, but claimed he only used it “for very unimportant papers”.

Earlier this year, Mr Trump replaced a portrait of Mr Biden in the Oval Office with a picture of an autopen signing the former president’s name.

US

Suspect in US National Guard shooting now facing first-degree murder charge

Published

1 day ago

November 28, 2025

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Suspect in US National Guard shooting now facing first-degree murder charge

The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington DC is facing a first-degree murder charge.

It follows the death of one of the soldiers, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom.

The other soldier, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was taken to hospital in critical condition after the incident on Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, West Virginia’s governor said Wolfe remained in a “very critical condition”.

US attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, now faces charges including one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.

Pirro said there are “many charges to come” beyond the upgraded murder charge and that Lakanwal had driven across the country to launch an “ambush-style” attack with a revolver.

She said her heart went out to the family of Beckstrom, who volunteered to serve and “ended up being shot ambush-style on the cold streets of Washington DC by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree”.

President Donald Trump called Beckstrom, part of the West Virginia guard, a “highly respected” and “magnificent person”.

Investigators are continuing to execute warrants in the state of Washington, where the suspect lived, and other parts of the country, Pirro said.

However, she declined to discuss the suspect’s motive, saying officials have been working around the clock on that question.

Officials said Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

People who knew him say he served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before immigrating to the US.

Kristina Widman, who claims to be Lakanwal’s former landlord, said he had been living in Bellingham, close to Seattle, with his wife and five children.

The #AfghanEvac charity said Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration.

On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration.

The director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible”.

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The President has since said he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the US by revoking their legal status.

Organisations that work with refugees are worried that those who fled dangerous situations to start again in America will face a backlash after the shooting.

US

US to review immigration from 19 countries after Washington DC double shooting

Published

1 day ago

November 28, 2025

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US to review immigration from 19 countries after Washington DC double shooting

The US will review green cards issued to the citizens of 19 countries after two members of the National Guard were shot by a suspected Afghan gunman in Washington DC.

Immigration from Afghanistan has also been suspended indefinitely, the White House said, following the double shooting on Wednesday.

Joseph Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), revealed the order from President Trump.

He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”

Asked which countries would be affected, USCIS pointed to a presidential proclamation from June listing 19 countries.

The proclamation sought to “fully restrict” arrivals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

It also “partially” restricted arrivals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the suspected gunman in this week’s shooting and has been detained.

He worked as part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan, and reportedly came to the States under a programme meant to help Afghans who’d risked their lives assisting US troops in Afghanistan.

He’s thought to have driven thousands of miles to the capital from his home in Washington state, where he lives with his wife and five children.

Attorney general Pam Bondi called him “a lone gunman” who “opened fire without provocation, ambush style”.

President Trump described him as a “savage monster”.

He was granted asylum in April this year, according to NBC News.

One of his victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died of her wounds, while the other, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in a critical condition.

Lakanwal reportedly came to the US under Operation Allies Welcome, a programme enacted by former President Joe Biden after he pulled American forces out of Afghanistan in 2021.

Edlow explictly targeted the previous president as he announced the new green card regime.

He wrote on X: “The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies.”

Speaking after the attack, President Trump was even more caustic.

He said: “The suspect in custody is a foreigner, who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth.

“He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.

“His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden – a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.”

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He continued: “This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation.

“The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about.

“No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”