Tyre Nichols video shows a complete 'breakdown' in police protocols, legal experts say: 'No reason 5 officers need to reduce themselves to closed-fist punching'

• The video of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols being beaten by Memphis police was released Friday.

• Legal experts told Insider the footage showed police met Nichols with force even though he wasn't initially resisting.

• He may have run away from the officers because he thought he needed to in order to save his life, lawyers said.

Content note: This story describes police brutality, death, and contains graphic videos.

The video released Friday of five Memphis police officers brutally beating Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop showed clear police misconduct and a breakdown in protocol for detaining someone, legal experts told Insider.

The violent footage was taken during a traffic stop on January 7 in Memphis, Tennessee, and was released days after the five officers were all charged with second-degree murder, among other charges. Nichols, who was 29, died of his injuries on January 10. Police said Nichols was pulled over on suspicion of reckless driving, but later said there was no evidence substantiating the allegation.

Prior to the video's release, the Memphis police chief said it was "heinous" and "inhumane."

"What I saw was certainly police misconduct," Joshua Ritter, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, former prosecutor, and partner with El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, told Insider of the footage. "What I saw is never the way that five fully trained officers should try to detain a person."

The videos showed an officer approaching the car after pulling Nichols over and immediately telling him to "get the fuck out of the fucking car." After Nichols exclaims that he didn't do anything, an officer pulls him out, throws him to the ground, and says "I'm gonna tase your ass." Nichols then stands, struggles with an officer, and runs away after the officer deploys his taser.

As he runs, an officer can be heard saying: "I hope they stomp his ass."

Ritter said it was "abundantly clear" that "there was either a breakdown in training and protocol or a complete lack of training and protocol that these officers had to begin with."

"There's no reason why five officers need to reduce themselves to closed-fist punching in order to subdue a suspect who does not appear to be violent in return, but at the very worst can be said to not be compliant with their orders," he added.

He added it was hard to believe there was no way the five officers should not have been able to detain Nichols safely, without resulting to physical blows. "It's almost as if they are trying to gain his compliance by assaulting him," he said.