Thomas, his son, and his son’s girlfriend were driving in a new pickup truck to a friend’s home for breakfast April 7 when they got lost in a predominantly white suburb just south of Seattle. Thomas and his son are Black and his son’s girlfriend is white. Thomas pulled over to the side of the road to get his bearings.

Supposedly alerted by a neighbor who didn’t like the truck and its occupants being in the area, Miller, who lives in the neighborhood, approached the truck. He was in civilian clothes and demanded they drive off. Thomas Jr., not knowing he was talking to a cop, asked for Miller’s name. According to Gina-Marie Munnell, Thomas Jr.’s girlfriend who was in the back seat, the cop then said, "One chance is the only chance you have. Take it up the street."

Miller then drew his gun and fired three times into the truck killing Thomas Sr. and wounding his son in the hand. Thomas Jr. and Munnell said Miller didn’t identify himself as a cop before he killed Thomas Sr.

Miller claims he was forced to shoot after the elder Thomas aimed a gun at him. The cops claim to have found in the truck a gun, which had not been fired and had previously been reported stolen. Both Thomas Jr. and Munnell deny that Thomas Sr. produced a gun. At a press conference on April 18 Bradley Marshall, the Thomas family’s attorney, suggested the gun the cops say was found in Thomas Sr.’s hand could have been planted and that the cop might have seen a cell phone in Thomas’s hand and thought it was a gun.

The big-business media in Seattle joined in the police campaign to criminalize the victim of this latest police killing of a Black working person here. On April 11 the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed a front page story titled, "Man killed by officer had criminal history." The article refers to run-ins with the police and an assault conviction against Thomas, the latest of which is from 1984.

The police claimed Thomas was part of a biker gang and that the three in the truck had been partying and on drugs the day that Thomas was killed. Relatives and friends point out that Thomas Sr. was a motorcycle enthusiast who belonged to the Magic Wheels Motorcycle Club, a Seattle group. They also point out that both Thomases as truck drivers face regular drug testing and do not use drugs.

The first articles in the press after the murder of Thomas said that no drug paraphernalia had been found in the truck. Days later, without reporting the contradiction with previous reports, the press reported that drug items had been found in the truck.

Three days after the cop killing of Thomas, the Seattle police arrested Gina-Marie Munnell on an outstanding warrant as she was on her way to the Mount Zion Baptist Church to make funeral arrangements for Thomas Sr.

While some of Miller’s neighbors have defended the cop, others have said that he regularly harasses people who park on the road and local residents if he thinks they are playing music too loudly.

On April 18 Charles Mandigo, head of the Seattle FBI office, announced that the federal cop agency would be investigating the police killing of Thomas. Indirectly referring to the anger in the Black community over the killing, Mandigo said the FBI’s "public acknowledgment of its pending investigation was made in response to intense public interest."

Anger in the Black community here has been fueled by a series of police killings of Blacks in the city. In the past year this has included Shawn Maxwell, who cops gunned down claiming he threatened them with a sword. Last May Aaron Roberts was shot to death by police who claimed the unarmed man was using his car as a weapon. Several protests occurred after the killing of Roberts.

Larry Dean, who with his two sons was in the protest march after the Thomas funeral, pointed to the racist nature of the police killing of Thomas and others. "If [Thomas] was a white man, he [Miller] talks him down. There is no problem. There is no gun." Marchers in the protest of Thomas’ murder vowed to continue their demonstrations.

Ernest Mailhot is a meat packer and member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 81.  
 
 
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