Videos show US cops brutally assaulting black man

Victim, who died 3 days later, was stopped at traffic junction and dragged out of his car

MEMPHIS - Mr Tyre Nichols repeatedly cried "Mom! Mom!" as the five Memphis police officers now charged with the black motorist's murder pummelled him with kicks, punches and baton blows after a Jan 7 traffic stop, videos released by the city on Friday showed.

The videos from police bodyworn cameras and a camera mounted on a utility pole were posted online a day after the officers were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression in Mr Nichols' death.

The officers, all black, have been dismissed from the police department. Mr Nichols, 29, was hospitalised and died of his injuries three days after the confrontation in the city where he lived with his mother and stepfather and worked at FedEx.

The four video clips chronicle an aggressive escalation of violence directed at a motorist whom police initially said they pulled over for reckless driving.

The police chief has since said the cause for the stop has not been substantiated.

The beatings appeared to continue far beyond a point where Mr Nichols could pose any threat to police. At one stage, two officers hold him upright as another punches him repeatedly in the face, while other officers on the scene stand by without intervening.

The ordeal captured in the videos has transformed Mr Nichols, the father of a four-year-old, into the latest face of a US racial justice movement galvanised by the 2020 killing of Mr George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.