‘No one deserves to be beaten to death like Tyre was’: Parents of Tyre Nichols speak ahead of federal trial

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC/Gray News) - The jury selection in the federal trial for three former Memphis police officers accused in the beating death of Tyre Nichols in January 2023 began Monday.

The trial is expected to last three weeks.

Ahead of the federal trial, the parents of Nichols spoke about what accountability looks like to them along with their desperate plea for a guilty verdict.

“He just kept saying, ‘Mama, I’m about to be 30, I’m about to be 30.’ I said, ‘Yes,’” Tyre’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, said.

Wells said she wants to remember her son as a young father who loved skateboarding and photography and worked at FedEx with his stepfather, Rodney Wells.

“He lit up the warehouse. Everyone gravitated towards Tyre,” Rodney Wells said. “He had an infectious smile. He was just very energetic.”

Nichols had a bright future that ended the night of Jan. 7, 2023, after he was stopped by Memphis police.

“No one deserves to be beaten to death like Tyre was,” RowVaughn Wells said.

Five of the now former Memphis Police officers are charged with murder in a case that has drawn national attention.

Two officers, Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III, have already pleaded guilty.

The other three, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith, entered not-guilty pleas.

All five men are charged with second-degree murder in state court. That trial will start after the federal trial.

“I feel sorry for them. They are young men who have thrown their whole lives away,” RowVaughn Wells said. “We’re just hoping that we get a guilty verdict because it’s time for us to heal. We need to heal as a family, as a city.”

“[To] get some closure, justice for Tyre, so a guilty verdict would give us that,” Rodney Wells said.

A key piece of evidence at the trial will be hours upon hours of video captured by surveillance cameras and the officers’ own body-worn cameras.

Nichols’ mom said she couldn’t bear to watch the footage.

“I don’t want to see the video or anything, I just want to remember my son when he walked out that door, the way he walked out the door,” RowVaughn Wells said.

RowVaughn Wells said she remembers well the last conversation with her son.

“He came in the kitchen, and he hugged me and said, ‘Mama, I’ll see you later,’ and I said ‘OK, Ty,’ but I never got a chance to see him later except in the hospital where, in my mind, he was already deceased,” she said. “We were told that Ty was just pepper sprayed and tased, but then we got to the hospital, and I saw a whole different scenario.”

Nichols’ parents hope the trial will answer many of the questions they have about what happened that night.

Nichols’ parents said they still do not know the reason he was pulled over in the first place.

“They were immediately aggressive from the beginning like he had robbed a bank or something,” Rodney Wells said.

Renowned Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump represents Nichols’ family.

“We want full justice; we want criminal accountability and civil accountability,” Crump said.

The family has filed a lawsuit against the city of Memphis, MPD, and the officers involved in Nichols’ death.

“I still pray, and I struggle. What were they thinking?” Crump said.

Nichols’ mourning parents are now preparing themselves to relive the worst night of their lives.

“What they did to my son was inexcusable, and when I see them, I don’t wish anything bad on anyone. I’m not like that. But those five, they can go to hell,” RowVaughn Wells said.

WMC reached out to the Memphis Police Department for comment about the case. The department said it would not comment on it pending litigation.

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