Vol. 80/No. 42 November 7, 2016
Calif. cop convicted in death of Andrew Thomas
Feaster shot Thomas last Nov. 26 after the vehicle he was driving crashed while Feaster pursued in a patrol car. Passenger Darien Ehorn, 23, was thrown from the car and died at the scene.
Thomas’ family, friends and opponents of police brutality were in the courtroom on the final day of the trial. “This cop needs to do some serious time,” said Gordon Dise, a retired heavy equipment operator, explaining why he was there. “If Feaster is not convicted, it will impact everyone in the county.”
Also present was Lucy Garcia, a former telephone worker now in her ’80s, who participated last winter in protests calling for Feaster to be fired and arrested. “I’m so happy about this,” she told the Militant upon hearing the guilty verdict.
Footage from the cop car’s dashboard camera was shown during the trial. It shows Feaster jumping out of his patrol car at the scene of the crash and immediately drawing his gun and shooting Thomas as he tries to exit the flipped vehicle.
Then, instead of calling an ambulance or giving Thomas or Ehorn medical aid, Feaster pulls out his flashlight and begins looking for the spent bullet casing. Finally, 11 minutes after the shooting and after other cops arrive, Feaster tells them he might have “accidently” shot Thomas.
In the wake of the shooting, friends of Thomas and others protested almost daily at an intersection in Paradise near where Thomas was shot. A memorial set up at the site of the crash carried the sign, “Stop police brutality. Arrest Feaster.”
Some protesters called for the removal of Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey, who initially said no charges would be filed against Feaster. Instead, he threatened to charge Thomas with drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter in the death of Ehorn. Thomas died of his injuries about three weeks after the shooting.
Under the pressure of the protests, Feaster was fired in February and charged with involuntary manslaughter. “Ramsey did this to get out from all that heat,” said Cameron Ponce, a friend of Thomas who had worked with him on construction sites and attended the trial.
For most of those picketing and planning the actions, it was their first involvement in any kind of protest.
“Paradise is a small town, with a population of around 26,000, over 90 percent who are Caucasian,” said Jeff Powers, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Congress in Oakland, who joined some of the protests. “These young working people, many of them friends of Thomas, told us they were inspired by the demonstrations against cop killings across the country. It shows the impact of this fight.”
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