State of the Union 2023: Who is Tyre Nichols’s mother, RowVaughn Wells?
Rachel Schilke
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RowVaughn Wells is one of several people who came into the national spotlight after recent violence in America. Her son, Tyre Nichols, was fatally beaten by Memphis police officers, sparking outrage in the Tennessee community and across the United States.
Wells, however, made a plea to angered communities to stay peaceful when protesting. In 2020, protests over the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police turned to violence and rioting in certain places.
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The distraught mother also made headlines after expressing sympathy for her son’s killers.
“They have put their own families in harm’s way. They have brought shame to their own families. They brought shame to the black community,” she told CNN in her first interview since the officers were charged.
“I feel sorry for them. I really do. I really feel sorry for them because they didn’t have to do this,” she said.
Wells will attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address with Nichols’s stepfather, Rodney, after accepting an invitation from Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Biden’s speech is likely to touch on several areas, including gun violence, police reform, and overall crime.
Wells had a special relationship with her son, she said in an interview with CBS News.
“He has a tattoo of my name on his arm,” she said. “My son loved me to death, and I love him to death.”
She said her son’s passions included skateboarding and photography. During his funeral on Wednesday, a photo slideshow showed pictures that Nichols took or was in. That is how Wells will remember her son, not by the violent way he died — she said she did not watch the video of her son’s beating.
The City of Memphis released footage last Friday of five officers brutally beating Nichols during what started as a traffic stop. Nichols died on Jan. 10 after the interaction on Jan. 7 put him in the hospital.
The footage, split into four parts, showed Nichols being aggressively thrown to the ground, kicked, pepper sprayed, and tasered.
“No mother, no mother, no mother, should go through what I’m going through right now, no mother,” she said at a press conference.
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Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to Wells on the phone for thirty minutes prior to Nichols’s funeral, family attorney Ben Crump said.
“Vice President Harris and Ms. Wells spoke exclusively, and during this emotional time, the vice president was able to console Ms. Wells and even help her smile,” Crump said.
Harris could be seen embracing Wells at the funeral and standing by her side during the service.
The five Memphis police officers were criminally charged with second-degree murder, two counts of official misconduct, one count of official oppression, aggravated assault-acting in concert, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping.
Two other Memphis officers, two Shelby County deputies, and three emergency responders from Memphis Fire Department have also been relieved of duty in connection with Nichols’s death.
Wells said she wants “bad officers” taken off of police forces.
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“People try to say black people, we only try to go after white officers. That’s not true,” she said.
“We don’t care what color the officer is. We want bad officers taken off the force. We know there’s a lot of great officers, I know. … But there are bad officers, too. And those are the ones that we need to get rid of.”