Tears and anger as US police victim Tyre Nichols laid to rest

US Vice President Kamala Harris led urgent calls for police reform Wednesday as hundreds gathered in a Memphis church for the funeral of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old African American whose fatal beating last month shocked the nation.

Speaking before an audience including civil rights leaders and family members of Nichols and other Black victims of police violence, Harris called for Congress to act to curb brutality by law enforcement.

"When I think about the courage and the strength of this family, I think it demands that we speak truth," Harris said. "And with this, I will say this violent act was not in pursuit of public safety."

"This is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe," she told the gathering at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church.

Anger simmered across the nation over Nichols' death on January 10, three days after he was beaten and kicked in a traffic stop by five Black police officers -- an incident that rekindled a national debate about brutality in law enforcement.

Those present included Philonise Floyd -- the brother of George Floyd, whose murder by a police officer in 2020 was filmed by horrified bystanders and ignited waves of unrest across the country and beyond.

Also in attendance was Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, another prominent African American victim of police violence who was killed in a botched raid on her Kentucky home in 2020.

Nichols was arrested by members of a special police unit called Scorpion in Memphis on January 7 for a traffic violation, according to police.

He was beaten viciously by police, in scenes recorded in body camera and security camera footage that triggered national outrage when it was made public last week.

The five officers involved, who are all Black, have been fired and are facing murder charges.

Two others along with three firefighters have been suspended as the investigation into Nichols' death continues.

As Nichols' funeral took place, a new uproar was building over a bystander video from Los Angeles that appears to show the moments before police officers shot dead a double amputee, an African American, as he fled them on his stumps.

The officers involved said they had been responding to reports of an unprovoked stabbing carried out by a man in a wheelchair.

Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, and stepfather Rodney Wells called for legislative action to reform the police.

"There should be no other child that's just suffered the way my son and all the other parents here have lost their children," said his mother.

"This is a continuous fight that we have to fight for. We have to fight for justice. We cannot continue to let these people brutalize our kids," said Rodney Wells.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy at Nichols' funeral, said the officers who beat him had abandoned the spirit of the movement led by Martin Luther King, who was shot dead in a racist attack in Memphis in 1968.

African Americans would never have been hired by Memphis police without the campaign led by King, said Sharpton.

"You didn't get on the police department by yourself," he said. "People had to march and go to jail and some lost their lives to open the doors for you. And how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing?"

"We understand that there are needs to deal with crime. But you don't fight crime by becoming criminals yourself," he said.

"You don't stand up to thugs in the street becoming thugs yourself."

President Joe Biden, who spoke last week with Nichols' mother, has described himself as "outraged and deeply pained" by footage of his fatal beating.

He plans to meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus at the White House on Thursday to discuss police reform legislation and other priorities, according to a White House spokesperson.