Tyre Nichols

The Hernando DeSoto Bridge is a steel-tied arch structure carrying traffic from Interstate 40 across the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee. In March of 2021 I crossed it and installed a George Floyd jersey downtown, not knowing the bridge would factor in a future story here.

Tyre Nichols took many photographs of the DeSoto Bridge and the Mississippi River, often at sunset. The night he was killed by Memphis police he had just returned from doing so. He no doubt spent some time looking west, towards California and the life he left behind to return home and start a new job, just a few months ago.

sunset photographs by Tyre Nichols - full portfolio here

Tyre Nichols' brother said that if he had a nickname it would be Cheeseburger because of how much he smiled.

The metaphors are too easy: smiles, sunsets, bridges. Instead Tyre got beaten with batons till he died of internal bleeding. We grieve for Tyre Nichols. He was a father, a skateboarder. He was Unarmed.