Calls for Resignation Following Fullerton Police Confrontation

FULLERTON (City News Service) - Fullerton City Councilwoman Sharon Quirk-Silva called on Police Chief Michael Sellers to resign today because of the way he has handled the death of a 37-year-old homeless man who was involved in a scuffle with six police officers last month.

Quirk-Silva said Sellers should have been more in the public eye
explaining what happened July 5 during the arrest of Kelly Thomas, who was disconnected from life support days after his struggle with the officers.

"I would have liked to see the police chief immediately on this
holding a news conference," Quirk-Silva said. "Certainly he needs to be the face of the police department."

Quirk-Silva cited the response to the May 1, 2007, confrontation between pro-immigration protesters and Los Angeles police as a good example of public figures taking charge. She noted how then-Police Chief William Bratton quickly responded to the allegations of police brutality and how Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cut short his vacation to oversee the investigation.

"I think communication with the public is vital," Quirk-Silva said.
"When we needed someone to step up and speak on behalf of the officers. Our chief should have been the one to do that."

Fullerton police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich, the department's public
information officer, has handled questions related to the death of Thomas, but Quirk-Silva said the chief should have had a more hands-on approach to this incident because it has generated so many news stories and anger in the community.

"This is something that has struck a nerve not only in the city of
Fullerton, but across the nation," Quirk-Silva said. "There are multi-faceted reasons people are reacting -- first and foremost they're angry and saddened and hurt, and I think that type of dialogue with us has to come from the highest level."

Quirk-Silva did praise the chief for meeting privately with the Thomas
family.
"I do appreciate that, I really do," she said. "And I feel he has
done an excellent job in that role. But our public wants answers, and as people don't get answers, I think the anger, and I would say the hysteria, would snowball."

Goodrich said the chief has not issued a response to the councilwoman's comments but he has no intention of resigning.

Quirk-Silva said it's fair to say that she and her fellow council
members should also have been more public in responding to the community's questions about the incident.

The councilwoman's comments came a day after a stormy City Council
meeting packed with residents angered by how the crisis has been handled.

More than a dozen of the estimated 200 people there called for Sellers
to resign.

"Man up -- step down," one woman said, and a man who said he witnessed the July 5 confrontation called it "a terrible murder."

Among those attending the meeting was Ron Thomas, the dead man's father, who praised council members Quirk-Silva and Bruce Whitaker for publicly demanding that information surrounding the incident, including surveillance video, be made public.

Fullerton Mayor F. Richard Jones and other officials, including
Councilman Pat McKinley, the city's former police chief, urged the public to avoid a rush to judgment, suggesting the officers did nothing wrong in the way they confronted the combative suspect.

But Ron Thomas told the Los Angeles Times an attorney representing the city had offered him a settlement of $900,000, although the family has not filed a suit. There was no immediate confirmation as to whether a settlement offer had been made.

The six officers involved in the scuffle are on paid leave. They will
retain that status for the duration of an Orange County District Attorney's investigation, Goodrich said. In a separate investigation, the FBI is looking into whether the officers violated Thomas' civil rights.

Thomas struggled with officers as they tried to arrest him at the
Fullerton Transportation Center at 123 S. Pomona Ave. on suspicion of
possessing stolen goods, after receiving a report of a man trying to break into vehicles at the Metrolink station parking lot.

A photo taken of him at the hospital shows his face grotesquely swollen.

His family took him off life-support July 10.