MEMPHIS — The police officers kicked Tyre Nichols in the head, pepper-sprayed him and hit him repeatedly with a baton, even as he showed no signs of fighting back. At one point, after Mr. Nichols stood up, one officer struck him with at least five forceful blows while another held Mr. Nichols’s hands behind his back.
Soon, Mr. Nichols, 29, was on the ground — not far from the home he shared with his mother and stepfather — crying out in anguish: “Mom, Mom, Mom.”
Officials in Memphis released roughly an hour of video on Friday that captured how a traffic stop involving Mr. Nichols on Jan. 7 turned deadly during a second encounter after he fled on foot. The video, which was posted online in four segments just before 6 p.m., provided a degree of long-awaited clarity for the many people in Memphis and around the country who have demanded to know what happened. Yet it also failed to answer essential questions, including why the police pulled over Mr. Nichols, who was Black, to begin with.
Connect the Dots 101 
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