Tyre Nichols’ older brother is wracked with guilt after his sibling was savagely pummeled, kicked, pepper sprayed, slapped with a baton and hit with stun guns during his deadly encounter with Memphis police.
Jamal Dupree believes his brother would be alive today if he had been on the scene of that fateful and tragic night on Jan. 7, 2023.
“It’s like a never-ending nightmare,” Dupree told “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday, Jan. 31.
Dupree has no intention of watching the video of his 29-year-old brother screaming for his mother as he was being beaten.
“As soon as I seen them [sic] photos from him in the hospital, I already knew that they treated my brother like an animal,” Dupree told the station. “They beat on him like he was nothing. I don’t have to watch the video to know that.”
The bodycam footage horrified the nation and has led to the removal of seven Memphis police officers, two sherif’sf deputies, two EMT workers and a Fire Department lieutenant.
Five of those cops were quickly terminated and charged with second-degree murder along with several other felonies. The other two officers were put on leave from the force pending the outcome of investigations by the agency and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Dupree told CNN that had he been on the scene, he would have gone down with his brother.
“My brother was trying to cooperate with them,” Dupree said. “If I was there, they would have had to kill me, too. Because I would have fought all of them.”
In the end, Dupree wants the world to know that his younger sibling brought joy to those in his life.
“My brother’s legacy is everywhere right now. Everybody knows that my brother was an innocent person. Everybody knows that my brother was filled with energy. He was like the light of the room. He cared about people. He put people before he put himself. He was very selfless. He was just all-around, a great person to be around,” Dupree said.
“It should never happen to anybody, but at the same time, when you see a person like that, and you know a person like that, it just takes a toll. The world is going to miss a person like that,” he said.
A few days ago, Dupree told Fox 40 News that the arrests and murder charges are a step in the right direction, but that he won’t get any semblance of peace and closure until the officers are found guilty.
