Tyre Nichols was a 'good kid' who enjoyed skateboarding, photography and sunsets, his family says - CNN

A couple times a week, these five or six friends would sit together, put their phones away so they could be present and enjoy each other’s company, said Spates, who met Nichols about a year ago at a Starbucks in Germantown, Tennessee.

Nichols was a “free spirited person, a gentleman who marched to the beat of his own drum,” Spates told CNN.

A video montage of Nichols on YouTube shows his face up close with the sun shining behind him before he coasts up and down a ramp on his skateboard.

He grinds the rail and does tricks on his board in the video, which was shown at a news conference by his family’s attorney Crump.

Sunsets, skateboarding and his positive nature were all things that Nichols was known for, longtime friend Angelina Paxton told The Commercial Appeal, a local paper.

Nichols’ stepfather Rodney Wells told WMC: “My son is a community person, so this (memorial) was good to see.”