ST. LOUIS — The death of a Memphis man who was beaten by police and died three days later hits close to home for people in the St. Louis region.
The City of Memphis on Friday released an intense video showing five police officers beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols for three minutes on Jan. 7.
Nichols, a FedEx worker, father and skateboarder died three days after the assault.
The video undoubtedly opened wounds St. Louis, where the community protested following the deaths of Michael Brown, Anthony Lamar Smith and George Floyd.
Adolphus Pruitt, the president of the St. Louis City NAACP, said there would be debates over the wrong thing following the release of this footage considering the race of the officers.
“Some people will be looking to measure the Black community's response to see if it's equivalent in their minds to the response of the Black community when a white officer hurt somebody black," he said.
Pruitt said that humanity in general needed to be at the forefront when it relates to policing.
"Something's wrong when a minor offense can escalate and in Tyre's case, 5 officers on one," Pruitt added.
Rev. Darryl Gray, who had been on the frontlines for years advocating for reform in St. Louis, expressed that it seemed marching, policy updates and prayer only last for so long.
“(There are) bad apples in the police department because of culture (and) because of lack of training. Because of their own human error or weakness, (they) continue to set us back two or three steps,” Gray said.
The Ethical Society of Police, a union that represents many minority St. Louis police officers, tweeted that “Tyre Nichols' murder is deplorable. The actions of these types of officers make the job dangerous for officers who do the job right. Citizens need to be recognized as human beings no matter the color of their skin, economical status or assumed background."
Activists agreed the video needed to be a wake-up call.
“What are we doing wrong? What more can we be doing? How can we weed out within the police force one of the most powerful entities in our society. How can we address this?” Gray asked.
Gray also had a message for St. Louis’ new police chief, Robert Tracy.
“He has a duty to intervene, and I think reinforcing that in officers and holding them accountable to that is extremely critical," Gray said.
Groups including Pruitt's and Gray's gathered outside police headquarters for a vigil to support Nichols' family Friday evening.
5 On Your side reached out to the City of St. Louis and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for comment but did not hear back.