Tyre Nichols was born June 5th, 1993 and was a “mama’s boy,” artist, and an avid skateboarder, although according to his stepfather, he was too old to be doing it. Nichols worked full-time at Fed-Ex (which is why his stepfather thought he needed to stop skateboarding) and had a four-year-old son.
Nichols lived in Memphis, Tennessee and in addition to skateboarding, had an interest in photography. Here’s a picture he took he titled “Beale Street Magic”:
Nichols worked the second shift at his job and had dinner at his mother’s house every night for his dinner break. On January 7th, he was about 100 yards from her home when he was fatally beaten by five police officers for three minutes. His family’s lawyers believe his final words were calling out for his mother.
Tyre Nichols was loved. I am positive his mother poured as much love, hope, and happiness as she could into him, because that’s what good mothers do. It’s clear he was loved by his stepfather. What happened to Tyre Nichols is a stain on our entire country. No one should have to fear for their life simply driving to their mother’s house. You should be able to get through a traffic stop alive and unharmed.
The sad, sick reality of life in America is that we know what’s going to come in the following days, weeks, and months. The horrible video of Tyre Nichols being brutally and fatally beaten by the police will be shown on TV. It will be slipped into our social media feeds, even if we try to avoid it, and the fact that a real live human being, someone who was loved, and was loved in return, was taken from the people who loved him, will get lost in the sensationalism of it all. It’s begun already in the countdown to the release of the video of the attack against Tyre Nichols.
Please remember that there was a person named Tyre Nichols. He loved skateboarding. He was an artist. He had dinner with his mother every night. He was a father, son, and friend. He was loved and he mattered.
(featured image: Scott Olson/Getty Images)
