‘We’re all Tyre’: Mourners gather for Nichols’ funeral

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The family and friends of Tire Nichols gathered Wednesday for a funeral that took his life three weeks after his death after a brutal caning by Memphis police officers that sparked a new round of calls for police reform has, should celebrate.

As the service began, a group of singers and drummers playing African instruments made their way to the front of the church, where Nichols’ black coffin was draped in a large bouquet of white flowers.

“We love you, Tyre”, the artists sang and those present joined in.

The Mississippi Boulevard Celebration Choir sang the popular gospel song “You Are My Strength” while Nichols’ family, Rev. Al Sharpton, and family attorney Ben Crump listened while the church was packed with mourners.

Rev. J. Lawrence Turner called Nichols “a good man, a beautiful soul, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, a man” gone too soon and “his rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of.” Happiness, denied the dignity of his humanity, denied the right to watch the sun go down another day, to hug his mother, to hang out with his friends, to hold his child and the right to grow old.”

“As we celebrate Tire’s life and comfort this family, we share with this nation that the repeat of this episode creating Black Lives hashtags has been canceled and will not be renewed for another season,” Turner said. “We have come and we will overcome.”

In the three weeks since Nichols’ death, five police officers have been fired and charged with murder. Your special unit has been disbanded. Two other officers were suspended. Two Memphis Fire Department paramedics and a lieutenant were also fired. And more discipline could come.

But Wednesday is about Nichols, a 29-year-old skateboarder and amateur photographer who made boxes at FedEx, made friends on morning visits to Starbucks, and always greeted his mom and stepdad with a sunny “Hello, parents!”

Nichols was the baby of her family, born 12 years after his closest siblings. He had a 4-year-old son and was working hard to better himself as a father, his family said.

Nichols grew up in Sacramento, California and loved the San Francisco 49ers. He got to Memphis just before the coronavirus pandemic and got stuck. But he was fine with it because he was dating his mother, RowVaughn Wells, and they were incredibly close, she said. He even had her name tattooed on his arm.

Friends at a memorial service last week described him as cheerful and friendly, quick with a smile, often goofy.

“This man walked into a room and everyone loved him,” said Angelina Paxton, a friend who traveled to Memphis from California for the memorial service.

Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, will deliver the eulogy at the funeral and Crump, a national civil rights attorney representing the Nichols family, will deliver a call to action. The start of the service at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church was delayed by hours due to freezing weather and travel hazards. The funeral program included some landscape photos taken by Nichols.

Sharpton gathered the Nichols family and local activists Tuesday night at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ in Memphis. The historic landmark is where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final speech the night before he was assassinated nearly 55 years ago.

Sharpton said the family intended a “dignified memorial service, not a marathon.”

“This is not about politics; it’s about justice,” Sharpton said. “People come from all over the world, and we come because we are all Tire now.”

Those expected in attendance include Vice President Kamala Harris; Tamika Palmer, mother of Breonna Taylor; and Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd.

The deaths of Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of police sparked protests against racial injustice across the country.

Nichols, who was black, was beaten after police stopped him on January 7 for an alleged traffic violation. The video, released after pressure from Nichols’ family, shows officers holding him down and repeatedly hitting, kicking and beating him with batons, screaming for his mother.

Nichols’ death was the latest in a series of early police reports of their use of force, which were later found to have minimized or omitted mention of violent encounters.

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AP reporter Travis Loller reported coverage from Nashville, Tennessee.

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For more information on the Tire Nichols case, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tyre-nichols.

Aaron Morrison and Adrian Sainz, The Associated Press