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A video showing the beating of a Fullerton, California man, Kelly Thomas, has been released. Thomas was homeless and suffered from schizophrenia before he was beaten by police on July 5, 2011. The video was released on Monday at a hearing that was held to determine if the police in the case should face trial. Thomas died from his wounds. The video is 33 minutes long and it begins with Thomas being approached by Officer Manuel Ramos from the Fullerton Police Department. Ramos begins a conversation with Thomas and by the 15th minute of the video he is wearing latex gloves. Just a warning, the language in the video and this article might offend some people.
“You see my fists?” Ramos asks Thomas. “They’re getting ready to fuck you up.”
“Start punching, dude!” responds Thomas. Thomas was sitting on the ground when this dialogue began. Thomas is hit repeatedly with a baton by a second officer when Thomas tries to walk away from them. The first couple of minutes of the incident do not appear on video but the audio proves that Thomas is trying to surrender.
“I’m sorry, dude! I’m sorry,” Thomas said. “I can’t breathe dude, I can’t breathe! Please, I can’t breathe!”
At the 18th minute of the video another officer arrives and the tasering of Thomas begins as officers yell at him to stop resisting. As the tasering continues, Thomas is screaming and multiple officers are sitting on him. When the video hits the 20-minute mark, Thomas yells out for his father, who is not there at the time.
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“Dad! Dad! Dad! Help me, help me Dad!”
The video finally ends as emergency personnel remove Thomas from the scene in an unconscious state.
“We ran out of options so I got the end of my Taser and I probably … I just start smashing his face to hell,” says Cpl. Jay Cicinelli. “He was on something. Cause the three of us couldn’t even control him.”
The video shown at the hearing pretty much confirms what residents of the town have been saying for the past couple of months: that the police who responded to the call used too much force to subdue Thomas. Thomas spent five days in a coma at the UC Irvine Medical Center before his family took him off life support. Cicinelli and Ramos are the only two officers from the video charged in Thomas’ beating death. Ramos has been charged with one count of second degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter. Cicinelli has been charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of excessive force.
