MEMPHIS, Tenn. — One year after Tyre Nichols was beaten to death by five Memphis Police officers, friends, family, and community members decided to meet to let the world know his death would not be in vain. 

They say time heals all wounds, but the pain still cuts deep for RowVaugn Wells, even one year later. 

 Wells remembers that day, January 7, 2023, as if it were yesterday. 

“I didn’t get a phone call, I didn’t get a text message, I didn’t get a Merry Christmas,” Wells said. “I didn’t get none of that from my baby this year.”

She kept going to the window, waiting for her son, 29-year-old Tyre Nichols to come home. 

“I was on the phone talking to my daughter, I kept telling her, ‘Kiana, my stomach hurts.’ I kept telling her my stomach is hurting. And she said, ‘Mama, what’s wrong?’ And I said ‘I don’t know,'” Wells said.

She says the Memphis Police knocked on her door 45 minutes later.

“Saying my son was arrested for a DUI and that he had been taken to the hospital because they had to pepper spray his face,” Wells said.

We later learned that what the police said happened was a far cry from what the body camera video later showed. The footage even showed Nichols screaming out for his mother whose home was just blocks away.

“That was the sweetest child you could ever meet. Did you know my child had never been in a fight before?” Wells said. “Did you know that he’s never been in a fight before and to then be in a fight with the people who were supposed to protect and serve him?”

In that very spot Sunday night, family and friends gathered to remember Nichols not only for who he was in life but for what’s been done in response to his death. 

“Last year we passed those police reform ordinances, two of which don’t exist anywhere else in the country. That was an extreme win for us. I am very encouraged about the work that we’ve done,” community advocate Amber Sherman said.

With a new administration now in office, they hold on to hope for a better Memphis to bring justice not only to Nichols but to all the victims of violence in our city. 

“Let’s remember all of those people who have lost their lives these past years to police violence, domestic violence, just stupid violence,” Sherman said. “Memphis, we need to get it together here because we’re going in the wrong direction.”

Valeria Snipes is one of the many people who stopped by to place these candles. She had her young children in the car with her.

“We all are traumatized by the event,” Snipes said.

So while 2023 was a year of pain, the hope is that 2024 is a year of accountability. Advocates will continue their calls for action at this Tuesday’s council meeting, where they will demand change from our new mayor and city council members. 

Meanwhile, this coming year, we will see the officers allegedly involved in Nichols’s death stand trial.