The parents of Tyre Nichols, a man allegedly killed by police in Memphis Tennessee, is expected to be in attendance at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
The White House released a list of guests who will be sitting with the president’s wife, first lady Jill Biden. Among them is RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the mother and stepfather of Nichols.
Nichols, a black 29-year-old FedEx worker, died last month after a brutal beating captured on camera. The ordeal stemmed from an attempted arrest during a traffic stop for suspected reckless driving.
Nichols was subdued, but then he fled before being recaptured minutes later and police allegedly kicked and punched him multiple times. Nichols later died at a hospital. Five black officers were fired and subsequently charged with second-degree murder.
Although the officers charged in Nichols’ death were all black and their special unit was disbanded, activists have taken to blaming “systematic racism.” There have been fresh calls for policing reforms.
“President Biden has made clear that we must take action to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again,” the White House said in a statement. “In addition to signing an executive order last year, the President continues to call on Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to his desk.”
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at Nichols’ funeral earlier this month. “This violent act was not in pursuit of public safety. It was not in the interest of keeping the public safe, because one must ask, was not it in the interest of keeping the public safe that Tyre Nichols would be with us today?” Harris said. “Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe?”
Other State of the Union guests announced by the White House include Ukraine Ambassador Oksana Markarova and Holocaust survivor Ruth Cohen.
Also in attendance will be Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of Nancy Pelosi, who survived a break-in attack at their San Francisco home in late October, as well as Brandon Tsay, the man caught on camera disarming the suspected gunman in the deadly Monterey Park, California, shooting.