Body cam footage showing Tyre Nichols' encounter with police released
SACRAMENTO — Body camera video showing the police confrontation that allegedly killed Sacramento native Tyre Nichols is set to be released Friday evening.
Nichols is being remembered as a sensitive soul by a Sacramento childhood friend.
"Loving, caring, very tall," Harry Silva said. "A very bright light, yeah."
The pair were skaters growing up. Silva helped shoot skateboard videos of Nichols when the two were teens.
Now, nearly a decade later, a body cam video is set to be released showing the brutal beating by now-fired officers facing charges including murder for the police confrontation that allegedly left Nichols dead.
Silva does not want to see it.
"I would prefer not to," Silva said. "I don't think he would want me to see it."
Mark T. Harris is the co-founder of Law Enforcement Accountability Directive. He is also an attorney with the Benjamin Crump Law Firm. Harris is based in Sacramento.
"It breaks my heart on a number of levels," Harris said. "Number one, a young man who spent a significant amount of his life right with us as a neighbor, in Sacramento, he has deep Sacramento roots, as you know."
We asked Harris about the Memphis police strategy, releasing the body cam video after announcing the firing and criminal charges against the officers.
"I think, quite honestly, it was shrewd on the part of the city. None of us wants to see rioting and further violence, destruction," Harris said.
Nichols was initially pulled over for a traffic stop before he ran from police and was caught and beaten. The body cam video will show those final moments between his life and his death.
It's already leading to public outrage, and for family and friends, it's a deeply personal loss.
"He was honestly just such an amazing guy," Silva said, "he was truly just…yeah…just amazing."
Friends have planned a memorial for Nichols on Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Natomas Regency Skate Park.