Tyre Nichols' death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma, official autopsy results show

Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who was brutally beaten by Memphis police officers after a traffic stop earlier this year, died of blunt force injuries to his head, autopsy results released on Thursday from the Shelby County Medical Examiner show.

Nichols' death was classified as a homicide, according to the report, which was originally obtained by CBS News' Memphis affiliate, WREG-TV. The autopsy also showed that Nichols suffered liver failure and damage to his kidneys, as well as blood clots throughout his body. Nichols, who was placed on a ventilator upon arrival at the hospital, was also brain-dead at the time of his death, the report shows.

Nichols died on Jan. 10, three days after he was detained by Memphis Police officers after a traffic stop. At the time, police said that there had been a "confrontation" when officers approached Nichols' vehicle. He then fled the scene before another "confrontation" took place, police said.

But footage of the incident released in late January showed the violent beating and prompted nationwide outrage. The four videos were taken from police body cameras and street surveillance cameras. The footage showed officers removing Nichols from a vehicle after pulling him over, an initial struggle where Nichols broke loose and ran away from the officers, followed by disturbing images of Nichols being restrained and beaten by the five officers at a suburban intersection. 

Five former Memphis police officers have been charged with second-degree murder in Nichols' death, and all of them have pleaded not guilty. Two other officers have been relieved of duty as the investigation continued, and three fire department personnel who responded to the scene have also been fired. 

The civil rights attorneys for Nichols' family, Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, released a statement on Twitter on Wednesday after seeing the results of the autopsy, saying that the results "are highly consistent with our own reporting back in January of this year," when an independent autopsy from January commissioned by the attorneys found that Nichols had suffered "extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating." The full findings of the report were not made available to the public.

"We know now what we knew then. Tyre Nichols died from blunt force trauma and the manner of death was homicide," read the statement. "The official autopsy report further propels our commitment to seeking justice for this senseless tragedy."

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