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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
National
Jamil Smith

Essay: The mother of Tyre Nichols couldn't hear his cries. Can you?

Tyre Nichols RowVaughn Wells George Floyd Police Trayvon Martin Barack Obama

I have a vivid imagination, but I don't need one to visualize screaming for my mother in my last breaths, and her not hearing me.

Mine is still here with us, so I can come back to her. It's why I don't see myself quite like George Floyd at the end, crying for his mama while Minneapolis police were murdering him. That was May 25, 2020, and "Miss Cissy" died two years earlier. She couldn't hear him.

RowVaughn Wells couldn't hear her son, either. He was much nearer and a lot louder than Floyd at the end, which in a way, makes it worse. When he yelled "Mom! Mom! Mom!" in successive, tearful bursts, Tyre Nichols was about 60 yards from her southeast Memphis home.

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