The video shows Memphis officers punching, kicking and using batons to beat Tire Nichols. (Photo: The New York Times)

Sources said protesters marched in the cities of Memphis, Washington D.C., New York, Atlanta and several other major cities, where National Guard forces were deployed. In Memphis, where Nichols died, protesters took over the I-55 Bridge to a major highway. Demonstrators gathered outside the White House, just hours after President Joe Biden called for peaceful protest.

On January 7, Memphis officers pulled over Tire Nichols’s vehicle for suspected reckless driving. Nichols was then hospitalized and died three days later. Five Memphis Police Department officers, who also are Black, were fired after an internal investigation and are facing criminal charges, including second-degree murder.

The US has been plagued by racism and police use of force against people of color. The killing of African-American man George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020 sparked a wave of protests across the country.