The specialized police unit that included at least some of the Memphis officers involved in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols was disbanded on Saturday as more protests took place in U.S. cities a day after the video of the attack was released.

In a statement, the police department said it was permanently deactivating the SCORPION unit after the police chief spoke with members of Nichols' family, community leaders and other officers.

Video recordings from police body-worn cameras and a camera mounted on a utility pole showed Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, repeatedly screaming "Mom!" as officers kicked, punched and struck him with a baton in his mother's neighborhood after a January 7 traffic stop. He was hospitalized and died of his injuries three days later.

Five officers involved in the beating, all Black, were charged on Thursday with murder, assault, kidnapping and other charges. All have been dismissed from the department.

Read more:

A timeline of events in Tyre Nichols arrest, death

Deaths at 10-year high

Nichols' death is the latest high-profile example of police using excessive force against Black people and other minorities and also left many many Americans questioning how much real progress had been made since 2020.

The 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, galvanized worldwide protests over racial injustice and appealed for police reform nationwide.

And yet two years later, the number of people who have died during interactions with police hit a 10-year high in 2022, at 1,186 deaths, according to the website Mapping Police Violence.

"They say it's a new year, but same old, same old," said Robert Jones, a 26-year-old salesman in Memphis.

African Americans accounted for 26 percent of those deaths, though Black people represent only 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Protests continue

Several cities saw renewed demonstrations on Saturday. In Memphis, protesters chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets!" angrily catcalled a police car that was monitoring the march, with several making obscene gestures. Some cheered loudly when they learned of the disbandment of SCORPION.

The SCORPION unit, short for the Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods, had been formed in October 2021 to concentrate on crime hot spots.

"I'm just sad for where we are in America; we're still here," said Lora King, whose father Rodney King sustained a violent beating by police in Los Angeles in 1991, also caught on camera. The incident fueled lethal and destructive riots in that city and elsewhere. "I'm in disbelief."

"We have to do better," she told CNN. "This is unacceptable."

(With input from agencies)