Subsequent segments – the footage runs about an hour in total, and is audio-only in parts – show Nichols crying out for his mother, and moaning as officers repeatedly kick and punch him.

In one extremely graphic video, officers are seen aiming several kicks at Nichols’ face. After pulling him up, they deliver five punches to his face. When he falls to the ground they aim two more kicks at his face.

5 US ex-cops charged with murder in beating of Tyre Nichols

Biden repeated his appeal for protesters to remain peaceful, saying: “Those who seek justice should not resort to violence or destruction.”

Addressing an emotional press conference earlier Friday, the victim’s mother RowVaughn Wells likewise appealed for calm – while calling out the officers who she said beat her son “to a pulp,” telling them: “You disgraced your own families when you did this.”

Biden spoke with Wells who he said was “obviously in enormous pain,” commending “the family’s courage and strength” and her “very strong plea” for peaceful protests.

The father of a four-year-old son, Nichols worked for FedEx, loved skateboarding and taking photos, and had a tattoo of his mother’s name on his arm.

“My heart just breaks,” Wells told the news conference. “For a mother to know that their child was calling them in their need, and I wasn’t there for him.”

“My son was a beautiful soul,” Wells said. “He was a good boy. No one’s perfect. But he was damn near it.”

In downtown Memphis, around 50 officers gathered at the central Martyrs Park to mark the video’s release, later blocking a main road as they marched and chanted “No Justice, No Peace” and “Say His Name: Tyre Nichols.”

US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday announced a federal civil rights investigation into Nichols’ death, while law enforcement agencies in some major cities said they were preparing for possible unrest.

Three people were arrested for damaging a police vehicle during protests in Times Square, a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department said. Demonstrations appeared largely peaceful in other cities, including Atlanta, Washington and Sacramento.

Memphis police chief Cerelyn Davis compared the video to footage of the 1991 Rodney King beating, which sparked days of riots in Los Angeles that left dozens dead.

“I was in law enforcement during the Rodney King incident, it’s very much aligned with that same type of behaviour,” Davis said. “I would say it’s about the same, if not worse.”

Nichols’s mother has accused police of initially trying to cover up her son’s beating, coming to her door to say he had been arrested for drink-driving and pepper-sprayed and tasered after being difficult to handcuff.

Video of Floyd’s death spread rapidly, sparking a massive wave of at times violent protests nationwide and beyond, and reviving scrutiny of race relations and a culture of police brutality in the United States.

At a Memphis skate park where Nichols was a local, flowers and candles were laid out beside signs demanding “Justice for Tyre.”

Robert Walters, a 67-year-old blues musician visiting the city from Virginia, said he and his wife would return home early to avoid any violence.

“I’m a black man living in America. And that fear is always something that me and my son, we grew up with and we live with,” he said, in reference to police brutality.

The five officers involved in Nichols’s fatal beating were taken into custody following a rapid internal investigation that found them to have deployed excessive use of force and to have failed to render aid.

In addition to second-degree murder charges, the officers are also facing indictments for aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping.

Four of the five were released from jail after posting bail, US media reported on Friday, citing jail records.

The fact the officers were themselves black “hurts,” Walters said.

“These guys, you’d think, of anybody, should know [better], but it just goes to show you that anybody can fall into that trap,” he said.

“I just want people to just be calm and not do anything stupid, not destroy or hurt.”