"The cops are kicking this poor guy over there, all these cops," one woman told the bus driver in a conversation captured on a grainy bus surveillance tape.Officers responding to reports of an attempted car break-in near the station confronted Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old schizophrenic homeless man who had become a fixture in downtown Fullerton. I'm fairly certain that the penalty for breaking into a car is not supposed to be DEATH!
"He's almost halfway dead," another passenger told the driver. "They killed him."
Six officers fought with Thomas and they used their taser guns to pump his limp body with 50,000 volts of electricity several times. He emerged severely beaten and in a coma. A photo taken of him at the hospital shows his face grotesquely swollen and covered with bruises and cuts. He died five days later after being removed from life support. [SOURCE]
Suspicions about the incident have been heightened by two videos on which witnesses reacted to the police action. In one video taken by a bystander, Thomas can be heard screaming "Dad! Dad! Dad!" over the clicking sounds of the Taser. Here is video with reaction by his Dad a few days later.
"They've Tased him five times already," a woman can be heard saying on the video. "That's enough!"
"They just beat and Tasered him until he stopped moving," Turgeon said.An initial autopsy did not determine cause of death, and coroner's officials are waiting for additional test results.
