Tyre Nichols’s family demands justice at funeral; VP Harris in attendance

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) plans to reintroduce the act after the State of the Union address on Feb. 7, according to Ben Crump, the Nichols’s family attorney. A “duty to intervene” element, in honor of Nichols, will be added too, Crump said during Nichols’s funeral Wednesday.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — named after the 46-year-old Black man killed by Minneapolis police in 2020 — passed the Democrat-controlled House in March 2021. But negotiations broke down in the Senate soon after. Facing fizzled-out police reform efforts, President Biden last year signed an executive order with some initiatives similar to those in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. However, Biden’s order only applies to federal law enforcement agencies, and executive orders can be reversed by future presidents.

Just before 3:15 p.m., RowVaughn and Rodney Wells followed their son’s casket out of the church. They walked slowly and together, mostly looking down.

The rows full of mourners emptied quickly, leaving behind a picture in the lobby of Tyre Nichols smiling and lifting his son.

Alisha Wooten, 45, was one of the last people to leave. She had spent the past hours singing in the church’s choir, watching up-close as civil rights leaders and grieving family members tried to find a way forward.

She said the service struck a nerve in her as both a mother and a student of Black history. She listened to the Rev. Al Sharpton speak about Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for equality and, in a particularly emotional moment in the church, about how the Black officers who beat Nichols to death would not have had their jobs without generations of activists and dreamers.

The speaking portion of the funeral has concluded, and the Nichols family has been led out of the church.

Shaking and clutching the lectern with both hands, RowVaughn Wells, Tyre Nichols’s mother, paused midway through her address to listen to a woman in the back of the crowd.

“He’s going to change the world,” the woman shouted, with the room otherwise quiet.

“Yes,” Wells said.

“It’s not in vain,” the woman said.

“Yes,” Wells replied.

Tyre Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells, tearfully thanked mourners at the funeral for paying tribute to her son.

“I just need — whatever that George Floyd bill is, we need it to pass,” she said. “We need to take action.”

Rodney Wells said that when they first heard the news about Tyre’s death, it was surrounded by “lies, deceit, trying to cover it up.”

Rodney Wells, Tyre Nichols’s stepfather, said this is just the beginning. “We’re looking forward to passing some bills. We’re looking forward to getting justice for all of the families over there, not just ours,” he said. “We cannot continue to let these people brutalize our kids.”

Tyre Nichols’s sister, Keyana Dixon, was the first member of the family to speak, saying that “monsters murdered my baby brother. They left me completely heartbroken.” She added: “Even in his demise, he was still polite. He was still the polite young man he always was. He asked them to please stop, and they didn’t. That is why my family will never be the same.”

Family attorney Ben Crump said Tyre Nichols’s “legacy will be one of equal justice.” He called the Memphis response a “blueprint” for justice because of the police department’s “swift justice.” He added that communities that have seen other Black men and women killed should receive “swift justice, too.”

Ben Crump, the attorney for Nichols’s relatives, said that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) told the family that there will be an addition to the George Floyd Act measure that will be called the Tyre Nichols Duty to Intervene section.

The Rev. Al Sharpton brings the crowd to their feet: “Yes, I got books. Yes, I got TV shows. But I’m a mountain climber,” he said. “I’m going to climb until Tyre Nichols gets justice.”

Whenever the Rev. Al Sharpton mentioned a person in the crowd who had lost a relative to police violence, Tyre Nichols’s parents, Rodney and RowVaughn Wells, looked around the chapel to find that person, made eye contact with them and clapped. Rodney Wells wrapped his arm around his wife, stroking her shoulder. She clasped her hands in her lap, a box of tissues to her right. RowVaughn Wells stood, clapped and began to cry when Vice President Harris demanded that Congress pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.