As part of his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden honored the family of Tyre Nichols, who died after five Memphis police officers beat him following a traffic stop in January. President Biden called on lawmakers to work on police reform — a sentiment that Nichols' parents echoed to Scripps News after the speech.
Nichols' mom, RowVaughn Wells, said the president's "words were strong, but we need action."
"I want them to pass that George Floyd reform bill because there's too many Black and Brown kids being murdered by the police," she said. "And I feel as though if they would have passed it in the beginning, maybe my son would still be here because all he was trying to do was come home. He wasn't bothering anybody or anything. They just decided to target him."
Rep. Steven Horsford, the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the family's attendance at the address aims to shed more light on the situation and add to the call for accountability.
"We don't want anything more than public safety in every community," he said. "We want parents to feel safe that their kids can go to a park, that someone could get pulled over for a traffic incident and that not end in the loss of their life. And so we're calling for accountability."
