Former President Donald Trump says the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by Memphis cops “never should have happened.”
Trump, 76, added that the video of officers allegedly murdering Nichols in a vicious beatdown was “horrible,” joining the large number of leaders from President Biden on down in condemning the attack on the 29-year-old FedEx worker and dad of a 4-year-old boy.
“I thought it was terrible. He was in such trouble,” Trump told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday, referring to Nichols in the excruciating body-cam and street surveillance footage. “He was just being pummeled. Now that should never have happened.”
The video, released Friday, showed police holding down and striking Nichols for 3 minutes with their fists, boots and baton as they screamed profanities at him.
Nichols screamed out for his mother in the footage, which Trump called a “very sad moment.
“That was really the point that got me the most, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
The Republican firebrand, who is running to take back the Oval Office in 2024, didn’t mention the Nichols’ video during campaign speeches in early presidential primary states New Hampshire or South Carolina on Saturday.
Five cops were fired and then charged with second-degree murder in the case. They were all released on bail Friday, with their arraignments set for Feb. 17 in Shelby County court, records show.
The heinous crime has led to protests across the country, including in New York City, as the legal team for Nichols’ family — and Memphis’s top cop — likened the confrontation to the infamous 1991 police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles.
Trump said Memphis police have taken a “strong step” by breaking up the special police unit, called SCORPION, which the accused cops were a part of. The unit was created in 2021 to take on violence in areas of the city with high crime rates.
“Look, the tape was perhaps not totally conclusive, but to me, it was pretty conclusive, and it was vicious and violent and hard to believe — over a traffic violation,” Trump said, referring to the fact that police initially claimed Nichols was pulled over for driving under the influence.
The cops then said he was driving recklessly — which Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said there is no evidence of.
With Post wires
