Who was Tyre Nichols?
Mr. Nichols had a 4-year-old son and a tattoo of his mother’s name on his arm, his family said.
Tyre Nichols, the man whose death this month at the hands of Memphis police led to the dismissal of five officers, loved to photograph sunsets and to skateboard, a passion he’d had since he was a boy.
Mr. Nichols, 29, who worked for FedEx and had a 4-year-old son, was too old to be skating anymore, said his stepfather, Rodney Wells.
“You’ve got to put that skateboard down,” Mr. Wells remembered telling Mr. Nichols not long before he died. “You’ve got a full-time job now.”
Mr. Nichols had been working for FedEx, a major employer and corporate presence in Memphis, for about nine months. He worked the second shift, and would return to his mother’s house every evening around 7 o’clock for his meal break.
His mother, RowVaughn Wells, said that Mr. Nichols had her name tattooed on his arm. “That made me proud,” she said. “Most kids don’t put their mom’s name. My son was a beautiful soul.”
According to the family’s lawyers, Mr. Nichols told the police officers during the Jan. 7 encounter that he just wanted to go home, and in what the lawyers believe were his final words, he called out for his mother. Her house was about 100 yards from where he was beaten, the lawyers said.
By QuaRick Rojas – https://www.nytimes.com/
Rick Rojas is a national correspondent covering the American South. He has been a staff reporter for The Times since 2014. @RaR
