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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 1 January 4, 2016
(front page)
Protests in Paradise say, ‘Charge
cop who killed Andrew Thomas!’
Alicia Brogden Photography
Dec. 19 protest in Paradise, California, demands cop who killed Andrew
Thomas be charged. “Drinking and driving or not, Andrew didn’t deserve
to be shot,” said friend Joshua Turner.
BY SETH GALINSKY
“That police officer ought to be fired, there’s no question about it,”
Dick Miller, 88, told the Militant by phone from Paradise, California.
He was referring to Paradise cop Patrick Feaster who shot Andrew Thomas,
26, in the neck Nov. 25 after Thomas’ SUV crashed. Darien Ehorn, Thomas’
wife, was thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene. Thomas died
three weeks later.
According to police, Feaster followed the SUV after Thomas and Ehorn
left a bar a little before midnight. Less than a mile away from the bar,
the SUV hit a highway divider and flipped on its side.
Feaster, who is Caucasian as are Thomas and Ehorn, is well-known in
Paradise. In 2012 the Chico News featured him in an article headlined
“Personal Mission: Paradise Cop Pursues Drunken Drivers in Honor of His
Late Uncle.”
“Whether or not Andrew was driving and drinking, he was trying to get
out of the vehicle and he didn’t deserve to be shot,” Thomas’ friend
Joshua Turner, who has organized a number of protests against the
shooting, told Channel 7 News.
Police video shows Feaster walk right by Ehorn, who is lying in the
street gravely injured, then pulling his gun and shooting Thomas as he
attempts to get out of the overturned vehicle. Thomas falls back inside.
Feaster looks inside the SUV at Thomas and then, still ignoring Ehorn,
pulls out his flashlight and appears to be looking for his spent bullet
casing.
It’s not until other police officers arrive on the scene that a call is
made to get an ambulance. After another officer begins aiding Ehorn,
Feaster still doesn’t mention to anyone he has fired his weapon.
The cops order Thomas to get out of the vehicle. When Thomas says he’s
been shot, Feaster replies, “No you haven’t.” After Thomas tells the
cops a second time he’s been shot, and despite the fact he says “the
cop” shot him, the other officers speculate among themselves that he had
been shot at the bar. It’s only then, 11 minutes after the shooting,
that Feaster admits he fired his gun — by accident he says — but doesn’t
think he wounded Thomas. “I wasn’t even pointing at him,” he claimed.
During all this time none of the cops give any medical care to Thomas,
whose spinal cord was severed by the bullet.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey initially said no charges
would be filed against Feaster, but that he would charge Thomas with
drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter by intoxication in the death of
Ehorn.
“I saw the video and it upset me,” said Miller, a retired construction
contractor. “I’ve been hunting all my life and I’ve never pulled the
trigger accidentally.”
Protests demand ‘Fire Feaster!’
“Fire Feaster,” “Ramsey Step Down,” “Stop Killer Cops” and “All Lives
Matter: Where is the Justice? We Want it” were among the handwritten
signs at a Dec. 19 protest Turner organized.
Miller joined the action, saying it was the first time he has ever
protested in his life. Other protests have been organized.
Feaster “needs to be brought up on criminal charges,” Bert Morrisey,
whose son knew Thomas, told the Paradise Post at a Dec. 12 protest.
“There was no reason to pull a gun and shoot an unarmed kid.”
“The officer was wrong and the DA was wrong,” Judy Morrisey told the
Post at the protest. “I think if they admitted it, people would not be
so upset.”
“It’s incredible, the story he’s trying to sell to the public,” Wes
Oppenheim told the Post during the Dec. 19 demonstration. “His answer is
that he ‘might’ have shot him. Are you kidding me?”
After the protests and Thomas’ death Dec. 19, the District Attorney said
he was now considering filing charges against Feaster for criminal
negligence, but would not decide before the new year.
“The question is would Thomas still be alive today had Feaster told his
superiors earlier,” Ramsey said. “That’s a medical determination that
has to be made.”
Related articles:
‘Prosecute Minneapolis cops who killed Jamar Clark’
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