5 US ex-police officers charged with murder in beating of Tyre Nichols
- Tyre Nichols, 29, died three days after a violent encounter with police following a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee
- US President Joe Biden calls for public calm as officials say a video of the incident will be made public on Friday
US authorities on Thursday charged five former police officers with murder over the fatal beating of a black man in Memphis, as the southern city braced for possible civil unrest and President Joe Biden urged demonstrators to protest peacefully.
Tyre Nichols, 29, was stopped on January 7 for what the Memphis Police Department said was reckless driving.
After a chase ensued, “police brutalised him to the point of being unrecognisable,” family lawyers Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said in a statement.
The five officers, who are also black, were fired after an internal investigation found them to have deployed excessive use of force and to have failed to render aid, police said.
Nichols was taken to hospital in critical condition, according to police, where he died on January 10.
Officials said police video of the arrest would be released later Friday.
