The lawyer representing Tyre Nichols’ family has called on the US Congress to pass urgent police reform legislation in the wake of his death.
Mr Nichols, 29, was fatally beaten by five police officers in January.
Speaking to US media, Ben Crump urged President Joe Biden to use Mr Nichols’s death to gain support for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
And he said Mr Nichols’s mother was coping with her son’s loss by hoping that his death could lead to change.
“She believes in her heart Tyre was sent here for an assignment and that there is going to be greater good that comes from this tragedy,” Mr Crump said.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was introduced in 2021 after Mr Floyd was killed by a white police officer kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. His death sparked international protests.
The bill would see a federal ban on the use of chokeholds by police and make it easier to bring charges against offending officers.
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives – which was then controlled by the Democratic Party – passed the bill in March 2021, but it was later held up by opposition in the Senate.
“Shame on us if we don’t use his tragic death to finally get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed,” Mr Crump told CNN. The lawyer said if the law did not change, deaths at the hands of police would continue. (BBC)