Fullerton Police Beat Homeless Man -- Kelly Thomas -- to Death

On July 5, 2011, six Fullerton police officers responded to a call that a man appeared to be burglarizing cars. They found Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old (and 135 pounds) schizophrenic homeless man. The cops then beat him to death.

Upon realizing what they'd done, the cops ran off. By the time an ambulance (and new police officers) arrived, they six guilty cops were gone. (But apparently, the Fullerton P.D. knows who they are -- there's an "internal investigation" going on.)





The six cops left Kelly Thomas in a coma. Thomas died five days later.

Here are before and after shots of Thomas:

This story remained buried for three weeks, until the London Daily Mail reported on it. Then KFI-AM's John and Ken Show picked it up, beginning coverage on July 27, and going all day on it on July 28.

John suggests that if the homeless man were black, the Los Angeles Times would have been more aggressive in its coverage. That this beating is worse than that of Rodney King (who, after all, survived).

In any event, by now the story's gone viral. The best, original source for news on this story appears to be Friends for Fullerton's Future.

============================