Tyre Nichols' mom says Memphis officers ‘shamed their families’: ‘I hate it was 5 Black men that did this’
Tyre Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, believes a greater good will come from son's death in Memphis, Tennessee
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The mother of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died of his injuries after five Black police officers brutally beat him during a traffic stop in Memphis, said on Saturday that she will pray for the families of the officers after they disgraced them and their community.
RowVaughn Wells told MSNBC in an interview a day after police released bodycam video of her son screaming "mom, mom" during the deadly beating that the five officers involved had "shamed their own families."
"I hate the fact that it was five Black men that actually did this to another Black man," Wells said. "My son probably was their age."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"They just brought disgrace to themselves," she continued. "I'm not an evil person, my son is not an evil person ... I pray for (the officers') families because their families didn't deserve any of this either."
TRYE NICHOLS: ARRAIGNMENT DATE SET FOR 5 EX-MEMPHIS POLICE OFFICERS CHARGED IN FATAL BEATING
Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, died three days after being severely beaten by five Memphis Police Department officers during a traffic stop on January 7, 2023. (Scott Olson)
Nichols, a 29-year-old father, was on his way home from taking pictures of the sky on Jan. 7, when police pulled him over. He was just a few minutes from the home he shared with his mother and stepfather when he was brutally attacked by five Memphis police officers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He died three days later at a hospital, and the officers have since been charged with second-degree murder and other offenses.
Nichols was just minutes from his home in Memphis, Tenn., on Jan. 7 when he was pulled over by police and fatally beaten. (Courtesy of the Nichols family via AP)
After watching the video of her son being beaten, RowVaughn Wells said at a news conference last week that while nobody was perfect, her son was "damn near."
Nichols was remembered as a joyful man who loved photography and skateboarding.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FRIENDS AND FAMILY MOURNING THE LOSS OF TYRE NICHOLS REFLECT ON HIS CHARACTER: ‘EVERYONE LOVED HIM’
He was an avid skateboarder from Sacramento, California, and came to Memphis just before the coronavirus pandemic and got stuck. But he was fine with it because he was with his mother, and they were incredibly close, Wells said. He had her name tattooed on his arm.
RowVaughn Wells, mother of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police officers, is comforted by Tyre's stepfather Rodney Wells, at a news conference with civil rights Attorney Ben Crump in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
"I believe in my heart that my son was on assignment from God," Wells said during the interview. He finished his assignment and God took him back home."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wells said that she will never stop fighting for justice and believes a greater good will come out of the tragedy.
"And that is what keeps me going to get this justice for my son," she said, "because I'm not going to stop until every person that had anything to do with my son's death is prosecuted to the fullest of the law."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The five ex-police officers charged with Nichols' fatal beating were scheduled to be arraigned on Feb. 17.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.