California: Fullerton marches against police murders

Fullerton, CA – Over 30 people, including families impacted by police killings, protested against police brutality at the Fullerton Transit Center on Friday, July 5. The protest was spurred by the March killing of Alejandro Campos Rios by the Fullerton Police Department. Rios was homeless and experiencing a mental health crisis when police killed him.

The protest was held near the 13th anniversary of Kelly Thomas’s death, who was also brutally killed by six Fullerton PD officers near the Transit Center on July 10, 2011. Thomas was homeless and unarmed.

Alejandro Campos Rios’s domestic partner of 29 years spoke on his March 6, 2024 murder, stating, “My whole life has been turned upside down. They took away something from me that I can’t get back. It doesn’t give them the right to kill anybody because they’re struggling! All he needed was help. He didn’t need bullets, he didn’t need no taser, he didn’t need nothing!”

Pointing to an altar which displayed a watercolor portrait of Alejandro Campos Rios, she said, “He was having a mental crisis, and obviously PD doesn’t know about mental crisis and mental illness that some of these homeless people struggle with, and they took it upon themselves to murder him. He was just in his own little world.”

DeAnna Sullivan spoke on several police murders, including that of her son, David Sullivan, stating, “My 19-year-old son was murdered in Fullerton by the Buena Park Police Department. Officer Bobby Colon and Officer Jennifer Tran murdered my son. They pulled him over, and they didn’t give him time. Instead, they rushed at him and started shooting at him. They shot him in the front, they shot him in the side and they fucking shot him in the back, because that’s the fucking cowards that they are!”

During speeches a police officer tried to intimidate attendees and to identify organizers, but he was redirected away from the protest. A city vehicle parked about 20 feet away and surveilled the protest while a police drone hovered above.

An organizer with the group Dare to Struggle spoke on the issue of police violence, saying that in many cities across the U.S. politicians have increased funding since 2020 and that “four years later, we see that the role of police has not changed. They still answer mental health crises with bullets.” But while cities like Fullerton have increased police spending and have little accountability, other local struggles against police brutality have made gains.

This May, after a long legal struggle, the city of Buena Park was forced to pay the Sullivan family $3.5 million dollars after a civil jury found that officers Colon and Tran used excessive force when they shot and killed David Sullivan in 2019. And in Los Angeles, Sheriff Deputy Remin Pineda was charged with unlawful shooting of David Ordaz Jr., who was killed in front of his family in 2021. Last October, an LA County judge rejected a plea agreement that would’ve allowed Pineda to avoid jail time on assault charges.

After speeches on Friday, protesters began marching towards Fullerton Police Station holding signs that included “Justice for Hector Hernandez”, who was shot and killed by Fullerton PD on May 27, 2020 after Hernandez was attacked by a police dog. They chanted, “Indict, convict, send these killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell!” Arriving at the station, they erected a piñata shaped like a police cruiser into the air and struck it to pieces.

Community Service Organization Orange County member Daniel Jimenez stated, “Friday’s protest in memory of Kelly Thomas and against Fullerton PD was impactful. As many organizers mentioned, this is not a moment but a movement. We must keep applying pressure against these corrupt violent police agencies to further prevent the suffering of our people! We are stronger in community.”

On demands, DeAnna Sullivan declared, “We demand accountability! We demand that Fullerton PD be held accountable for their actions! Fullerton needs to release the names of the officers that killed Alejandro. Todd fucking Spitzer, the District Attorney of Orange County, needs to hold these killer cops accountable and stop letting them get away with murder!”

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