Tyre Nichols was pulled over during a traffic stop. Now 5 cops have been charged with his murder.

"Mum, Mum, Mum!"

They were the last words Tyre Nichols is heard yelling out in a video released last week, as he was allegedly beaten by police. 

The 29-year-old father and FedEx worker was driving home in the US city of Memphis when he was pulled over at a traffic stop on the night of January 7. 

Nichols, who has a four-year-old son and recently enrolled in a photography class, had been out taking photographs of the sunset, according to his family.

Watch: Nichols' mother remembers her son as a "beautiful person" who "loved his family". Post continues below. 

Around 8:30pm, officers, who reportedly stopped Nichols, a black man, on suspicion of reckless driving, dragged him out of his car. 

"Damn, I didn't do anything... I am just trying to go home," Nichols is heard yelling in video footage released on Friday.

After being ordered to lay on his stomach, police pinned Nichols to the ground as they yelled at him. 

"Get on the ground," the officers shouted in the video according to FoxNews.

"I am on the ground," Nichols responded. 

"Turn around," officers said before Nichols responded, "Yes, sir."

"Turn the f***k around, I will tase you," an officer said. 

Shortly after, Nichols is seen breaking free before sprinting off down a road while officers deploy pepper spray and a taser.

However, they later catch up to him and allegedly beat him several times. 

In a separate video released online, two officers are seen holding Nichols down as a third one kicked him and a fourth delivered blows with what appeared to be a rod.

"Watch out, I'm going to baton the f**k out you," one of the officers can be heard shouting.

After calling out for his mother, Nichols, who was 73 metres from his family home, was handcuffed and sat up against the police car while in a daze. 

Three days later, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced the 29-year-old "succumbed to his injuries" and died in hospital.

Memphis Police has released bodycam footage showing the moment Tyre Nichols called for his mother as he was beaten by five officers before he died.

Warning: This video features distressing imageshttps://t.co/wBZ0rB1Yjt pic.twitter.com/5Fv2YkJNUf

— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 28, 2023

Memphis police chief Cerelyn Davis and lawyers for Nichols' family who watched the video with his relatives before it was released on Friday, warned that the images were brutal and likely to cause outrage, while appealing to the public for calm.

"You are going to see acts that defy humanity," Davis told CNN in describing the footage.

Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, asked parents not to let their children watch the "horrific" footage, when speaking in front of a crowd at a Memphis church last week. 

"No mother should go through what I am going through right now, no mother, to lose their child to the violent way that I lost my child," she said. 

Murder charges.

Two weeks after the incident, the five police officers involved, who were all black, were dismissed from the police department after an administrative investigation found they had violated department policy on the use of force. 

They have been identified as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills Jr, and Justin Smith, who are aged between 24 and 32.

Each had served with the department for about two to five years.

Last week, all five men were charged with second-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, official misconduct and oppression. 

Five Memphis police officers charged over death of Tyre Nichols https://t.co/24tDZEKBoY

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 26, 2023

On Saturday, it was announced the specialised police unit called Scorpion, which was formed in 2021 to concentrate on crime hot spots and included the five officers, was being disbanded. 

Today, three Memphis fire department workers were fired amid an investigation that found two paramedics and a driver who responded to the scene did not provide Nichols with adequate care.

Widespread protests.

Nichols' death has ignited widespread protests across cities in the US. 

On Friday, protests broke out in Memphis, a city of 628,000 where nearly 65 per cent of residents are black.

Protesters chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets!" shouted at a police car monitoring the march.

Hundreds of protesters also gathered in New York's Washington Square Park before marching through Manhattan, as columns of police officers walked alongside them.

Other protests have also taken place in Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco, where people carried signs that read, "Justice for Tyre Nichols". 

Image: Demonstrators raise signs during a protest at Washington Square Park, in New York on Saturday January 28. Image: AAP.

People take part in a march against police brutality at Times Square on January 28 in New York City. Image: Getty/Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress.

Protesters begin to march in Times Square enraged by the death of #TyreNichols #nyc #protest pic.twitter.com/BpWZiT20BD

— Dean_Moses (@Dean_Moses) January 28, 2023

Yup. We are here now. Here we will continue to be. It is abolition or bust. #AbolishThePolice #TyreNichols #NYPD #nyc @protest_nyc pic.twitter.com/sBJqU7z4wc

— Megan (she/her) (@mwatsonnyc) January 29, 2023

Nichols' family and US President Joe Biden have appealed for protests to stay peaceful. 

"Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols' death," Biden said in a statement over the weekend. 

"It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day."

My heart goes out to Tyre Nichols’ family and to Americans in Memphis and across the country who are grieving this tremendously painful loss. There are no words to describe the heartbreak and grief of losing a beloved child and young father.⁰⁰Here's my full statement. pic.twitter.com/ghROhSGtao

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 28, 2023

Biden spoke with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, Nichols' stepfather, on Friday to express his condolences, the White House said. 

Nichols' death marked the latest high-profile instance of police officers accused of using excessive force in the deaths of black people and other minorities in recent years.

In 2020, protests under the banner of the "Black Lives Matter" movement against racial injustice erupted globally following the murder of George Floyd, who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes.

"We must do everything in our power to ensure our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all," said Biden. 

"Real and lasting change will only come if we take action to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again."

- With AAP. 

Feature Image: AAP/Getty/Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress.