In what has become a daily theme, a bipolar California man called police for help early Friday morning, only for Pasadena police to show up and kill him.
The man has been identified as Reginald Thomas, who was having a mental episode, but when police showed up, he refused to drop a knife and a fire extinguisher.
That promoted police to taser him twice, then strike him several times with their batons and repeatedly kick him until he died.
According to KTLA:
Two 911 calls came from the home, the first at about 2 a.m., Katz said. The second one indicated a family disturbance, possession of a knife and the use of narcotics, and a “struggle” could be heard over the phone, the captain said.
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google_ad_height = 600;Lindsay, meanwhile, said two officers came to the home and told Thomas to put down a knife and a fire extinguisher, but he did not respond because “he was out of it.”
They twice used a Taser on him, and he finally dropped the fire extinguisher but then shut the door on the officers, she said. The officers pried open the door, Lindsay said, and then told her to leave as the altercation escalated.
“They was wrestling with him, was kicking him in the head and beating him with the baton stick,” Lindsay said, crying. “Then, after that, they was doing CPR and then he was dead.”
Pasadena police released the following statement about the incident:
Pasadena Police received a call in the 200 Block of East Orange Grove Blvd., at about 2:20 A.M., regarding a domestic disturbance with a suspect at the location armed with a knife. Officers responded to the scene and encountered an African American male adult armed with a knife. The suspect did not comply with Officers orders as the suspect attempted to re-enter an occupied apartment at the location. Pasadena Officers deployed a Taser in an effort to disarm the suspect and a fight ensued. The suspect was ultimately subdued by Police.
Upon restraining the suspect, the Officers observed him not breathing at which time CPR and life saving measures were implemented. The Officers continued CPR until the arrival of Pasadena Fire Paramedics who continued to render aid. Despite the efforts of Officers and Paramedics the suspect died at the scene.
Witnesses told KTLA that police seized surveillance videos that may have captured the incident.
“He was a good father, and they didn’t have to kill him,” Shainie Lindsay, the mother of four of his children, told KTLA. “He just wanted help. He didn’t want to die.”
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