Mother of Tyre Nichols says she is living on ‘prayers’ after police killing of son
NEW YORK — RowVaughn Wells, the grieving mother of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old black man who died three days after he received a brutal beating from five black officers during a traffic stop gone awry in her neighborhood on Jan. 7, says she is inspired to keep living by the “power of prayer” and the belief that her son completed his “mission from God” on Earth.
“People ask me how do I keep going and I tell them two things: the power of prayer that I get from each and every one of you, and the fact that I truly believe that my son was here on a mission from God and his assignment was completed on January 7, 2023,” the sobbing mother told a supportive audience at the National Action Network Convention Wednesday.
Her comments, made during a session of the convention called “From Grief to Action: The Fight for Social Justice Continues,” came just hours after city council members in Memphis passed an “Achieving Driving Equality” ordinance Tuesday that advocates are now pushing to have renamed in honor of Tyre Nichols.
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A Commercial Appeal report said with the passage of the ordinance, police in Memphis “will be directed not to make traffic stops solely for low-level offenses like improperly placed license plates or a single broken brake light.”
Officers will be allowed to stop drivers for “primary violations” when there is both a primary and secondary violation.
“I wanted to ensure that if we’re asking a certain department or director to implement something, that it’s actually clear what we’re asking and is also enforceable,” Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas, who sponsored the ordinance, told the publication.
She said with the passage of the ordinance in Memphis, which is only the sixth city in the nation to pass such a law, the hope is interactions between police and the public for “poverty crimes” will be reduced.
While Tennessee laws still take precedence over the local ordinance, Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis told council members that state laws will allow officers to stop cars for secondary violations “if there is a situation that’s an outlier,” according to the Commercial Appeal.
Addressing the NAN convention Wednesday, which featured activist family members of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Amir Locke, Eric Garner and Ahmaud Arbery, RowVaughn Wells said while she had yet to read the complete details of the Memphis ordinance, she believes it is a step in the “right direction.”
“It’s been said we got a lot of things accomplished in Memphis. They just passed a law yesterday and we’re gonna continue to fight and make sure that this doesn’t happen to another Tyre or Ahmaud Arbury or Trayvon Martin or George Floyd. It’s just too many of our black men being killed for nothing and no one is giving us answers why. You don’t see our white brothers being brutally beaten,” Wells claimed.
“We were here in New York when it passed so we haven’t had any chance to just read everything, but we do find it is a great step in the right direction. We need to put this on the state level as well as the federal level to make sure this does not happen to any child again.
Wells’ attorney, Benjamin Crump, and NAN founder Al Sharpton also agreed that the passage of the ordinance is a step in the right direction.
“No longer will they have stops for no cause, traveling while black, because of Tyre,” said Sharpton. “And as we see his mother standing here weeping, that will never bring back her son, but her son has saved the lives of other sons.”
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