Kelly Thomas died five days after he was brutally beaten by officers from the Fullerton Police Department in what is described as “one of the worst police beatings in US history.” He was 37-years-old.
All of the bones in his face had been crushed and Kelly choked to de*ath on his own b*lood. The officers involved in the beating de*ath were crim*inally charged but later acquitted of all charges.
Around 8:30 p.m. on July 5, 2011, someone called the Fullerton Police Department to say that a man was breaking into cars in the Sidebar parking lot on East Commonwealth Avenue.
Officers Find Thomas in the Parking Lot
Officers Manuel Ramos and Joe Wolfe found 37-year-old autistic homeless man Kelly Thomas in the parking lot. Thomas lived on the streets of the city. When police tried to talk to Thomas, he wouldn’t cooperate, and he even refused to let them search him.
The whole thing was caught on camera by a nearby FTC pole camera that was run by the FPD.
Officer Ramos walked up to Thomas and told him to sit down on the ground without a shirt on. After that, he asked that his bag be searched. Thomas said no. Then Officer Ramose told Thomas to stand up straight and put his hands on his knees. Thomas said, “I can’t do both.”
Officer Ramos put on a pair of rubber gloves and said, “Now see my fists?” You better pay attention, because they’re about to fuck you up!”
Officers Beat the Hell Out of Thomas
Then Officer Ramos and five other police beat Thomas badly, shocked him with a taser, and left him lying in his own blood. Officer Cicinelli was one of the police officers who came to help when people called. Court records show that Cicinelli hit Thomas with his Taser and did so in an unfair way. The police officer also used the end of his Taser to hit Thomas.
Thomas Pleads for His Life
Thomas begs the police officers over and over again in the video to stop beating him. The officers did not care about those pleas.
“I can’t breathe, I’m sorry, dude!”
“Please!”
“Dad help me!”
“Okay, okay!”
The office called police after beating Thomas up badly. First Thomas was taken to St. Jude Medical Center. From there he was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange. Before five days were up, Thomas fell into a sleep and died. He was no longer on life support.
Cause of De*ath
Thomas was ki*lled by police, and the coroner said that he died of “anoxic encephalopathy with acute bronchopneumonia” caused by “mechanical chest compression with blunt cranial injuries sustained during a physical altercation with law enforcement.” A toxicology study on Thomas didn’t find any drugs or alcohol in his body.
Officers Charged in Thomas’s De*ath
They were fired from the Fullerton Police Department: Officers Ramos, Cincinelli, and Wolfe. The former police officers were arrested two months after Thomas’s de*ath after an investigation by the FBI and the OCDA into his beating d*eath. Police were charged after there were protests in the Fullerton area.
Another cop who was directly involved in the fight with Thomas was not charged.
Officers Acquitted
Despite medical reports, physical evidence such as batons and Tasrers, surveillance footage, audio recording, videos from cell phones, on board bus videos, and 151 witness accounts, all of the officers charged with murd*er and/or mans*laughter were acquitted.
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