Tyre Nichols’ funeral is set to be held in Memphis on Wednesday, February 1 and civil rights leaders and Vice President Kamala Harris will be among those attending, according to reports.
The 29-year-old Nichols died in hospital on January 10, three days after he was stopped and beaten by Memphis police officers.
Seven Memphis police officers have been disciplined in connection with the death of Nichols so far.
Five of those seven officers have been accused of beating Nichols to death and were fired and charged with second-degree murder and other offenses.
The five officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith, face additional charges of aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. If convicted of second-degree murder they face up to 60 years in prison.
Last Friday, body cam footage of the altercation between Nichols and the officers was released by the Memphis Police Department, sparking further protests across the country.
The funeral for Nichols will be held at the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee at 11.30 A.M. ET, according to a CBSNews report.
The funeral will be live-streamed by selected news outlets, including CBS News.
The church regularly streams to its YouTube channel, but it is unclear whether the funeral will be live-streamed on the page.
Among the attendees at the funeral will be Vice President Harris, who was invited by Nichols’ mother and stepfather RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, according to a Guardian report.
Harris spoke to the the family on Tuesday and expressed her sorrow and offered condolences.
Reverend Al Sharpton will be delivering the eulogy at the funeral. Sharpton has remained outspoken about the significance of Nichols’ death as he speaks to media outlets about the incident.
On Tuesday, Sharpton spoke alongside Nichols’ family at the Mason Temple Church of God in Christ in Memphis, the same church where Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final speech before he was assassinated.
Sharpton said: “[The family] are standing on that ground because we will continue in Tyre’s name to head up to Martin’s mountaintop.
“That’s why we wanted to start this right on this sacred ground. This is holy ground. And this family now is ours and they’re in the hands of history.”
The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, is also expected to make a call to action at the funeral.
Reacting to the body-cam video, Crump spoke on CNN about the police having a culture problem.
“This video illustrates that there is this culture that says it doesn’t matter whether the police officers are Hispanic, Black or White, it is somehow allowed to trample on the constitutional rights of certain citizens, from certain ethnicities, from certain communities.
“We have to have a larger conversation about this.”
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