right now on "andrea mitchell reports," breaking news in tennessee. memphis and the nation brace for tonight's release of footage showing what a top state investigator is calling the absolute appalling police beating of 29-year-old tyre nichols, leading to his death. san francisco video court is making video and audio of the attack on paul pelosi available to the media. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. moments from now we will hear from the civil rights attorney and the president of the naacp

chapter in memphis, joined by the family of tyre nichols after five police officers were charged with murder for the death of the 29-year-old man. memphis and cities across the nation are planning peaceful protests once the public sees the videos from different cameras, one hour of videos detailing the brutal beating after tyre nichols was stopped for suspicion of reckless driving. federal and state law enforcement preparing for possible violence around the country. at an emotional gathering last night, his mother pleading for calm. >> i don't want us burning up our city, tearing up the streets, because that's not what my son stood for. if you are here for me and tyre, then you will protest peacefully. >> nbc news reached out to the attorneys for all five former memphis policemen.

lawyers for two of them say their clients plan to plead not guilty. joining me antonio hilton and laura jarrett, tim alexander and harry lipman. take us what we can expect at the press conference, the video release, how memphis is preparing. >> reporter: andrea, memphis for days now has been bracing for what we know and expect to see around 6:00 p.m. local time, 7:00 p.m. eastern tonight when about an hour or so of video footage from multiple angles is going to be accessible to the public. officials have been warning just how graphic and terrible all of this has been. the family, of course, has seen it, struggled to watch and get through more than a minute of it themselves. there are a couple key parts that i especially as a reporter am going to look for closely. we have new information from the chief of the memphis police

department about the nature of the stop. our understanding initially was that tyre nichols was accused of reckless driving. that's the action that precipitated him being pulled over. it sounds now from the chief of police like we're not going to see evidence of that. we're not going to see evidence of tyre nichols having committed a driving infraction or a crime in the available footage. that's raising questions, more questions than answers in some cases on the ground as people try to get a better understanding. i'm going to be looking for what kind of aid tyre nichols received, how quickly people responded once he made it clear that not only was he in extreme distress and clearly after three minutes of a terrible beating, in pain, but that he was short of breath and needed medical aid. we expect to see that there was perhaps a lapse or a delay in giving him the care he would have visibly and audibly asked for. take a listen to a conversation that our colleague just had with the chief of police here.

>> horrific. alarming. disappointing. sad. >> did you have a visceral reaction? >> absolutely. >> when you were watching this, were you thinking, how did my officers do this? >> i was literally in this room. >> how would you describe the energy of the officers that pulled over tyre nichols? >> on a scale of one to ten, they were at a ten. >> is that not police protocol? >> no. it's not police protocol. >> we have heard comparisons to rodney king. when you hear attorneys for the family, they talk about a brutal beatdown. >> absolutely. >> is that all true? >> yes, it is. it is true. as i said before, it's hurtful. it was obvious to me that what i saw was beyond the scope of what is condoned in this police department and any department i have ever worked in before.

>> reporter: andrea, as someone who has covered several of these cases, of these stories in different parts of the country, what we are seeing here of the chief of police talking to media and being honest about what we are about to see in the video, the swiftness of the investigation at multiple levels, at multiple agencies here on the ground, and the level of criminal charges these five officers are facing, this is not normal. this is not how in black communities and places like memphis they feel they are treated when incidents of police violence of this nature occur. while people are grateful. many people have shouted out the chief of police as someone being transparent and doing what she can. there's also a fear that because of how unusual the pace of all this is that they are going to see something tonight that sends

shockwaves that's shattering to people here. that's the only way they can make sense of just how quickly and expeditiously all of this seems to be happening. >> i heard in that extraordinary interview withes police chief the reasons that she gave made sense for why they are releasing it at 6:00 tonight. help me out here with what she said. >> reporter: as i have talked to folks on the ground here, the decision to release this video at 6:00 tonight, it felt to many local leaders, state lawmakers i have spoken to, people in conversation with the governor, the mayors of the county and the city here, that it wouldn't make a lot of difference what time the video came out. a lot of people were saying 6:00 on a friday night, aren't you asking for riots, aren't you asking for people to get angry and violent? they said the nature of the video is so bad that they didn't believe it was going to make a difference. the one thing they thought would make a difference in the conversations that the

stakeholders who were at the table if we showed we would hold these officers accountccountabl people knew that they are not just facing a range of various charges, they are facing second degree murder, that's the level of charge that people have been asking for, murder charges, that that would show the community that we're doing something about this. at a minimum, people would get a bit of -- be able to sigh a bit of a breath of relief, feel respected by the officials who are supposed to protect and serve them. they were intentional about the timing here in the sense that yesterday we got the new about those five officers in custody. today, we are getting the video and we are able to hear from officials, they are talking to reporters, they are bringing us into their offices so we can ask them questions. i stress how unusual that is. that's not how this feels on the ground when you cover these stories. the leaders here in memphis are handling this differently. they are being very careful about what information comes first so that people when they

experience what it sounds like we're going to experience tonight when this video comes out, that they are as prepared for it as they can be. they understand what may be coming next. maybe left the door open -- the d.a. left the door open for more charges if at some point in the investigation it becomes clear that more are necessary. >> it's very clear. you are right. from watching her, it's been an impressive performance. they didn't put the officers on administrative leave. they fired them so quickly. as she was pointing out to tom, they wanted to get people through the rush hour, get kids home from school, get stores closed after 6:00 so there would be fewer people on the streets. laura, i want to play what we heard in the last hour from the fbi director and the attorney general and talk to you on the other side. >> i have not seen the video. but i have been briefed on that video. it is deeply disturbing.

let me say horrific from the districts i've been given. >> i have seen the video myself. will tell you, i was appalled. i'm struggling to find a stronger word. but i will just tell you i was appalled. >> laura, what you said this morning on the air about how this video could make the prosecution's case here, do you think we're going to see each of these five officers committing violent acts that justify second degree murder? as you were explaining, you just have to show they should have had a belief their actions would lead to their death. >> that's the standard in tennessee as in most places. intent is not required. they didn't have to make a plan. they didn't have to premeditate. that's not what we are looking at. instead, we are looking at a case in which they should have reasonably known, should have been aware that their conduct was crossing a line and that a reasonable person in a reasonable officer's shoes would know that what they were doing

would kill tyre nichols. it's interesting to hear them. you can see them trying to strike this delicate balance between being appropriate outra what is to come in this horrific video that everyone has described as horrific. we haven't seen it, but everyone described it that way. they're trying to you see strike that balance between bracing for that, as the nation is calling out for leadership in this moment, but also being mindful that they are in the process of an active federal investigation as we understand the justice department looking into what happened here. i think that that's sort of the line that both of them are trying to tow there. the harder issue here is not how do you investigate it, how you prosecute it. how do you prevent cases like this? we have all covered so many of these cases, too many to count. the real question is, i think, a systemic one. the issues in memphis are not unique to memphis. they are issues the country is

struggling. >> we will talk to other people about that very thing. tim, you have worked as a civil rights attorney, county prosecutor. how much of what happened to tyre nichols is systemic within police departments? they were part of this scorpion squad which may have been part of the bad culture there. >> working in reverse order, a lot of departments have specialized groups to target high crime areas where there's a large amount of calls for services. often -- sometimes those groups form dysfunctional norms as we say in law enforcement. these beliefs that they are outside of the normal operating range of law enforcement. i believe that these officers came in with implicit bias. it doesn't matter their

ethnicity. they see people of a certain way. they form a reason for stopping the car. when that didn't go the way they anticipated, they really became emotionally hijacked. you see this rage coming out as being described by those who have seen the video, how they didn't conform in the manner in which they expect and that rage and that total loss of where they are, who they are, what they're doing resulted in the loss of life again. i believe that this is a huge problem in training. law enforcement has to accept the fact that implicit bias is ingrained in many departments. that doesn't say what i have been saying all along, the vast majority of law enforcement officers are good, honorable people. when you have situations like this and it comes to a head and we lose life, enough is enough. we must make significant changes. >> tim, there's an obvious question here that a lot of people are asking.

here is an assault that has been described by those who have seen the video as comparable to the rodney king brutality, which was a case of a black man assaulted by white police. here you have five black police officers. can you help us explain culturally what happens to these black officers, one of whom had a previous incident before he was hired in memphis in a prison facility where he was accused of a beating, but what happens to people who have a uniform and a gun, in some cases, where five black officers could treat this black man so brutally? >> that goes back to the discussion or the topic of implicit bias. these officers see themselves as blue. they see certain people in the community as ordinary people and some as criminals regardless of who they are, where they are.

it's ingrained. in this case, i believe that they believed they saw this man no matter what as someone who crossed their radar, he must be up to no good. they came up with this reason to stop the car. this is what happened. to bring it full steam, it doesn't matter the race or ethnicity of the officer. when you are operating on implicit bias, it's how you see the community, how you see people in your community. if you have these biases, then you have this type of reaction. i believe that's coupled with the emotional hijacking aspect where these officers just lost it because this man did not cooperate. he didn't follow the script that they anticipated and that he tried to get away from them and at one point was almost successful. no one was there to say, stop, this is wrong, what are we doing? they all jumped on board and beat this man to death based on the description on the video.

that's really the culture of law enforcement that needs to be weeded out. i don't think it's widespread. but when it comes out like this, it's so damning and so heartbreaking. i was a victim of police brutality. i know the receiving end of that. i went through 27 years in law enforcement looking for this type of activity to make sure that in my arm's reach that it was addressed immediately and people were disciplined accordingly. >> it's extraordinary. harry, you worked on the prosecution of the officers involved in the rodney king beating three decades ago. how do you expect these prosecutors in tennessee will approach this case? >> well, i think compared with rodney king, which does seem to all of us as the paradigm of a terrible beating, this is going to be worse by order of magnitude. rodney king, which seemed to go

forever, one minute 19 seconds. this is over twice as long. it's going to be an eternity. second with rodney king, the federal theory was the initial encounter, as is often the case, was lawful and at a certain point it turned unlawful. the chief of police said that maybe even the initial stop was not justified. that would mean the entire three minutes is just a savage free-for-all. in terms of the one thing you can say about prosecutors, i do think that people in tennessee, memphis, across the country are more now attuned to the possibility of this kind of savagery from police officers, not as inclined to automatically give them the benefit of the doubt. laura pointed out the charge of second degree murder. they had to bring it. i'm glad they did. to show that it was reasonably certain that these people who were emotionally engaged as the

chief just said were -- knew they were beating him, that could be a challenge. everyone will hold their breath whether it com when it comes to the trial. by all accounts, this is going to be the worst thing we have seen. >> it's terrifying. laura, there are some in some cities, like l.a., pittsburgh, where the police have pushed back against it, where they are trying to prevent the police, by order, the police do not handle routine harmless traffic stops to try to reduce the possibility of these kinds of interactions. >> yeah. we certainly have seen different levels of police reforms used throughout the country. some of these experiments have been successful. some of them haven't. i think one of the issues that is going to come up as we do a deeper dive on what exactly happened here is the use of this so-called scorpion squad and how

prepared were these officers, what level of training did they go through? it appears as though they aren't been on the force very long. that's an issue. you will hear more about that. just the general atmosphere of what happens when you have these sort of jump out squads, what happens in the community when you have a situation like that, the level of dangerousness, i think you will hear a lot more about that. >> tim, we will hear from the memphis naacp shortly. they have been calling for calm. it's about to start. let's go there. this is the head of the memphis naacp as we continue exploring the horror of what happened here. >> let us begin with a word of prayer. lord, we are grateful and thankful for your many

blessings. we ask now that you would be with us, be with this family, give grace and strength for them. be with attorney crump and their team as they labor for justice. be with the city as we deal with all of the news and deal with all that we have to deal with in days to come. god, we ask your blessings as we share today. we pray in jesus' name, amen. it's my delight to bring on again today attorney crump, who is america's black attorney general. a fighter for justice. >> yes, sir. >> a fighter for peace.

>> yes, sir. >> and we ask him to come at this time. give him a hand as he comes. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, pastor thomas, again for allowing us to be at your cathedral. i'm attorney ben crump. along with attorney tony ramanuci, attorney ernestine voice and attorney van turner, who is also the president of the memphis chapter of the naacp, we are proud to represent the family of tyre nichols. also present with us, of course, is bishop williamson who has been a steady faith leader for

us in this ordeal as well as kareem ali, who is my investigator, but also is a person in the community who even before the video came out, the community activists were saying that something isn't right about this. i want to thank all those community activists and all those community people who stood up for justice even before we showed up, even before the cameras showed up. i think they deserve a big round of applause. [ applause ] we have the nclc president here as well. obviously, we have the people most affected by this tragedy who are showing such grace under these tragic circumstances.

that is the stepfather of tyre nichols and the mother of tyre nichols. [ applause ] we can never applaud you enough for your grace and dignity throughout this. what are we here for today? at this hour. we are here to give a reaction to the charges that were announced by the district attorney yesterday and to give remarks in anticipation of the last documentation of tyre nichols alive on this earth.

so we begin with our reactions to the charges. and we applaud the district attorney for bringing charges against the five officers for second degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct, and official oppression. very important charges against these five officers. as pastor thomas referred, sometimes i am referred to as black america's attorney general. [ applause ] we stand on the principal of equal justice. so let me be exceedingly clear

on this point. when we look at how these five black officers, who were caught on camera committing a crime, and when we look at how fast the police chief and the police department terminated them, and we look at how swiftly the district attorney brought charges against them in less than 20 days, then we want to proclaim that this is the blueprint going forward for any time any officers, whether they be black or white, will be held accountable. no longer can you tell us we gotta wait six months to a year,

even though we got a video with evidence of the excessive force and the crime. no more can you tell us that anymore. because with these five black officers, you all moved it swiftly. as the chief said, it was important for the community that they took swift action and that justice moves swiftly. again these five officers who happen to be african american. when it's white officers, we think it's also important to the community that there's swift action and that we move swiftly to justice. let's be honest. let's think about it. this is not the first time that we saw police officers committing crime and engaging in excessive, brutal force against

black people in america who were unarmed. but yet, we have never seen swift justice like this. think about it. laquan mcdonald in chicago, illinois. was that over a year? 14 months even though they had video on day one. think about the video of eric garner in staten island, new york. how long it took on that one. think about all these cases. think about pamela turner, houston, texas, killed on video. it took a year for them to bring charges even though they had the video day one. think about ronald green in

louisiana. they had the video for day one. took over a year to bring charges against them. so many -- my god, think about 14-year-old tamir rice on video. why justice didn't move swiftly for these black people when they were killed by white police officers. we have to make the point exceedingly clear, we now have the blueprint, america. we won't accept less going forward in the future. we won't have black officers treated differently than white officers. we want equal justice under the law. tyre deserved it. all our children. barry williams was killed for riding a bicycle while black in las vegas on video.

and yet the investigation is still going on over a year. we have a precedent that has been set here in memphis. we intend to hold this blueprint for all america from this day forward. >> yes. [ applause ] >> now, also -- you will hear from her. what grace and dignity for tyre's mother. she said previously that she feels god used her son as an assignment. bishop williamson, even though

it's very, very painful -- god knows it's tragic. but she believes god used her son as an assignment. >> amen. >> her and mr. wells said, this assignment is for reform. reform that we can try to prevent some of these hash tag of black and brown people being unjustly killed by police, that we can create a tyre law. >> that's right. >> here in tennessee. that will emphasize the importance of police officers, president turner, to have a duty to intervene when they see a crime being committed, even if

those crimes are being committed by their fellow officers. >> that's right it. >> that will be the appropriate legacy that we give tyre nichols if we really think we want justice for justice. it's not just justice for one family. it's justice for all of us. that's what she's praying for. she wants reform. we want this duty to intervene to become tyre's law, just like they have a law in new york. karrie ann horn was a black police officer. she witnessed one of her fellow officers brutalizing a black citizen. she intervened and stopped him,

got assaulted herself whether -- when she tried to stop him. because she intervened, she was retaliated against and she was terminated and had to fight almost a decade long battle to get justice because they had no duty to intervene for police officers before her courageous act. the issue is we have to have notice that police officers, you have a duty to intervene when you see a crime being committed. you expect the people to say something. why don't you all show us how to do it? you all go first when you see a crime being committed. then people in our community will feel a lot more safe when

they go intervene and say, we saw a crime, you want us to tell what we saw. you tell what you saw, too. amen? >> amen. >> this is what they want. they want reform with these charges. before i bring attorney ramanucci, before we bring family, we want to underscore two more points. number one, the fact that this unit had engaged in this type of brutality before. this unit had engaged in

excessive use of force against black citizens before. we plan to make sure that is pointed out in the civil case on behalf of tyre nichols. as citizens have reached out to us and the family about this happened to them. there's a brother who said four or five days before this happened to tyre that same scorpion unit confronted him while he was in his car going to get pizza. he said that they used all kind of profanity against him. they threw him on the ground, talking about where the drugs and weapons are. he was like tyre. put a gun to his head.

this brother, after he survived this ordeal, he said he called to the police department twice to internal affairs, twice. and they never responded to him. if they would have responded to him, we might not be here today. >> that's right. >> that's why we plan on making sure any citizen in memphis who had to face the brutality of this scorpion organized crime unit will come forward. we have an older gentleman -- >> 56 years owed. >> he was confronted by this unit. he was brutalized. he had pictures of his injuries.

it was foreseeable. it was foreseeable that something tragic like this was going to happen when you have police officers given, and our legal team discussed, not just immunity but impunity to trample on the constitutional rights of people who look a certain color, who lived in a certain community. we believe that this was a pattern and practice. tyre is dead because that pattern and practice went unchecked by the people who were supposed to check that. i think we are so thankful to chief davis. her leadership through this ordeal should be applauded as an example for our police chiefs.

but we agree with her when she says policy means nothing if you have a culture -- if that culture is rotten, you can make all the policy in the world. because the culture does not respect policy. we have to make sure that the culture not only respects the policy but the culture respects the community. that is what we have to do if we are going to give tyre nichols the proper legacy. finally, we think about, they came to her house and they told

her she can go to the hospital. it wasn't until 4:00 a.m. in the morning that the doctor called her. they told her that her son had been pepper sprayed and tased and he was nearby. never told them where they were at. so we believe that we cannot allow anybody to ever cover up crimes against our loved ones in our community. it happens far too much in america. and we have to have this conversation over and over and over again until it stops. we have to talk about this institutionalized police culture that has this unwritten law that you can engage in excessive use of force against black and brown

people. we have to have this conversation because this institutionalized police culture that suggests you can do this to people in certain communities who look a certain way cannot be tolerated. it doesn't matter if the officer is black, hispanic or a white officer, it is the culture that allows them to think they can do this to tyre, that they can do this to mr. anderson, to byron williams. to come and attack a black man just for riding on a bicycle, it's the culture. we have to call out this culture every time we get a chance. we going to call it out. >> yes. >> call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> call out the culture.

>> call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> call out the culture. >> we have to call out the culture. and that has to be the conversation or those hash tags will continue to pile up quicker than we can keep up. the only way -- this is just the first step to getting justice for tyre nichols. the only way we get full justice for tyre nichols is it's the institutionalized police culture that son trial today. the only way we get justice for tyre nichols is if we call out this institutionalized police culture so we can get full justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols.

justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. justice for tyre nichols. thank you all. now you are going to hear from a great lawyer who fights for civil rights all across america who i'm so proud to fight with yet again on the front line. then we will continue on with the press conference. [ applause ] >> thank you, again, ladies and gentlemen. i do have a few points to cover with you today. we were just here before you a few days ago. but we have to lead from the top. i want to talk to you about these criminal charges. the gravity of the criminal

charges and what it means not only to these officers but to this city, state and our country. remember, this supposedly emanated from a traffic stop which turned deadly. we talked about what we saw in the video when we were here before you monday, some were unmarked squad cars. these were not all officers in uniform. only partially of them were. you can call this the scorpion unit if that's what you want to call it. what these really are -- because i do happen to have subject matter expertise. these are suppression units. these are saturation units. what they really turn out to be are oppression units. what they do is they wind up oppressing the people that we care about the most, our children, our young sons and daughters, who are black and brown because they are the most vulnerable. make no mistake, tyre nichols at

all times was an innocent victim on that night. he did nothing wrong. he was caught up in a sting. this scorpion unit was designed to saturate under the guise of crime fighting. and what it wound up doing instead was creating a continual pattern and practice of bad behavior. as ben told you, there are others who are out there who have had similar experiences. i will dare say that when we get all the records that we need, that we will see a significant delta, a disparity between the use of force of the scorpion unit and that of the regular memphis police department and statistically on average across the country. that is because the saturation units are given whispered immunity. ben said it. not immunity but whispered

impunity in order to carry out their design. they can't collect guns, they can't find stolen cars unless they unwittingly trap innocent people in this web. therefore, we are asking chief davis to disband this scorpion unit effective immediately. [ applause ] the intent of the scorpion unit has now been corrupted. it cannot be brought back to center with any sense of morality and dignity and most importantly trust in this community. how will the community ever, ever trust a scorpion unit? that's what we are asking for.

the intent was good. the end result was a failure. we must recognize that and do something about it. and i call on all chiefs in this country to review their saturation units, to review their special squad units and disband them. because they can easily become corrupted when they are told they are whispered in their ear, act with impunity. now, one of the charges is kidnapping. we're going to talk about the second degree murder. but think about the weight of a kidnapping charge being brought against officers who are wearing a badge, a shield, carrying weapons on their duty belt, acting under the color of law. when has that happened in this

country? part of the definition of kidnapping in the tennessee statute is that it is something i'm going to give another analogy to. when you think of 9/11, what's the word that comes to mind? terrorism. when you think of other heinous acts that have happened in churches across this country, any act of terrorism, what does that instill in you? that, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition that we are dealing with here on this kidnapping charge. it is terrorism. it was designed to terrorize the victim. this young man, by definition of the law in this state, was terrorized. not by one, not by two, but by five officers who we now know that the charges brought actually state that they acted in concert with each other. they acted together as that pack

of wolves to inflict harm, terrorism, oppression of liberty, oppression of constitutional rights, which led to murder. i just talked about all the charges in nearly one sentence. that is how this case is going to be defined. this was an intentional act once those officers were there. they knew their actions were going to cause death. and, indeed, it did. sadly, it did. we will take questions at the end of this. but i do want to pick up on one thing that ben has said. if i may add, this is the spokesperson for civil rights in this country. [ applause ]

we want to know, where are the unions? where does the fraternal order of police stand on this? we have not heard from you. we want to hear from you. we want to hear you say that what happened to tyre, what happened to this family, should never, ever happen again. that you condemn the brutality, the savagery, the terrorism, the heinousness, the vulgarity of these actions. and we should all stand for that. you don't have to be a police union. we all have to have a soul and a heart. thank you. >> amen. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. you know, one of the things that must be stated about the

kidnapping charge -- when you see this video, you are going to see tyre nichols' calling out for his mom. he calls out three times for his mother. his last words on this earth is, mom, mom, mom. i mean, he is screaming for her. when you think about that kidnapping charge, he said, i just want to go home. it's a traffic stop, for god sake. a traffic stop. a simple traffic stop.

he is kidnapped for a simple traffic stop? >> think about that. >> i mean, y'all, this is such an important case. such an important case. and i continue to think about people like terrence, people who for simple things, having car trouble, and they end up dead when they encounter the police. corey jones having car trouble. black people have simple encounters with police, they end up dead. we don't hear about these things with our white brothers and sisters. we don't see the videos of the police doing the most with white citizens when they are routine, simple matters. and that's why we gotta continue

to speak to this police culture in america. it does get emotional, because i know what you all are about to see, america. as much as those five officers killed tyre nichols, it was the police culture in america that killed tyre nichols. [ applause ] you are going to hear from our civil rights leader here in memphis. he is standing with many other great civil rights leaders and i know the national urban league is also a great presence here in memphis. we want to introduce to you one of our introduce to you one of our cocounsellors who as a great civil rights leader here. the naacp president for the memphis chapter, attorney van turner. >> justice for tyre.

>> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> my name is van turner. and i'm here for justice for tyre. we know the video will be horrific. we know that this happened at. i just found out that this was in an area that i represented as a county commissioner, and part of what we did on the commission was put cameras up this that community to help combat crime. little did we know we would be combatting this type of criminal behavior as well. isn't that something? we put cameras up to assist the police in fugting crime this our community, and yet they come and

commit the heinous crimes we're trying to fight against. but glory be to god that a camera was there to catch what happened. so we want to, again, stand with this family. i'm here with my cohort. we fight together for the cause of the naacp. we know that president johnson sent his regards. he sent his soldiers down from the national office of the naacp to stand next to this family. the national organization is standing with this family. we will fight to the end. we will fight with attorney ben crump. we will fight with this family. we will fight with all those who are seeking justice for tyre. we want to thank pastor thomas for opening this church up again. thank pastor thomas. give him a hand. we want to thank all those who are here fighting for justice

for tyre. i was at that candle light vigil last night. it was such a beautiful look. all of memphis came together. folks who you wouldn't think could come together came together in support of this family and that's what we're going to do. we are going to stand united, but we're going to protest. we're going to make sure that policy is put forth and implemented correctly. we want to make sure that tyre nichols did not die in vain. we're going to make sure he did thot die in vain. we're going to keep fighting for him ask for this family. y'all pray for this family. y'all pray for our city. tonight will be one of the toughest nights that we have ever experienced in this city. but we will get through it. we will get through it. let's stick together. let's fight together. justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> justice for tyre. >> thank you very much.

>> ms. vicky terri, the executive director of the naacp wanted to say a brief word. plz lz. >> good morning, y'all. i justed to let ms. wells know she is not alone as a mother. i am a mother. i stand here with you, ms. wells, proclaiming that there will be a tyre nichols law in memphis, tennessee. if there is anything that have said this today. we will fight together. we will support ms. wells and the tyre nichols family. i was listening to her this morning. as a mother, my heart was breaking right along with yours. i was in tears all morning because of what is going on in

this city because of what happened to tyre nichols. ms. wells, i want to say thank you for birthing tyre. because he is the individual that is going to turn this city around. because memphis is the blueprint for what is going to happen across the country. thank you so much. we are here for you. as a mother, i am here. and i promise to do what i said that i'm going to do. and that is to make tyre nichols a law in this city. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, many dam executive director. they wanted first-degree murder. they were not bashful about

that. and when you see the video tonight, you will understand if this was your child, you will want want first-degree murder too. but they are respectful and accepting of those charges that the district attorney bought and they would think in their own way. now you will hear from tyre's dad, he's his stepfather, but as his mom and his brother and sister said, that's his dad. give a big round of applause for the man standing strong for his family, mr. rodney wells. >> thank you, everybody, for showing up. i just wanted to say that as mr. crump just stated, i did push for murder one from the beginning. that was my main goal.

but as the charges were told to us, and explained to us what the difference between murder one and murder two was, we're very satisfied with the charges. more importantly, we want peace. we do not want any type of uproar. we don't want any type of disturbance we want peaceful protests. that's what the family wants. that's what the community wants. i got a text today about an alert. we shouldn't have that. we need to do this peacefully. the family is very satisfied

with the process. with the police chief, the da, they acted very quickly in this case. we're very pleased with that. other cases drag on, but this is a special case. a very special son. that prompted the quickness of this results. so as of the tyre nichols family, please, please protest, but protest safely. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much, mr. wells. and now we're going to hear from -- you talk about dignity and grace personified. saying my son is sent on an

assignment from god. let that sink in. your son did sacrifice his life so that we can have a greater chance at justice for all. ms. wells will now address you. give her a big round of applause. >> hello. thank you all for coming and showing support for my family and my son. i really appreciate everything everyone is doing. my son is looking down smiing because he always said he was going to famous one day. i didn't know this is how he was -- this is what he meant, but -- i really don't know what

else to say right now. i have said so many things in the last few days. really i want to say i have never seen the video, but what i have heard is very horrific, very horrific. and any of you who have children, please don't let them see it. i just want to ask for prayer for my family, for this whole community and i want to say to the five police officers that murdered my