Jose Naranjo-Cortez, killed by FPD on Easter;
Pedro Garcia, killed by FPD a month earlier;
Alejandro Campos-Rios, killed by FPD a year before that.

Over the past 13 months Fullerton police have killed three Latino men, none of them armed, all experiencing some sort of mental problem. All of these killings were unnecessary. Is this a pattern?

Back in a 12-month period from mid-2011 to mid-2012, Anaheim police killed seven young men – that was a big enough deal that it led to riots, protests, a new Chief, modest reforms (including OC’s first bodycams), and a Police Review Board (albeit toothless). Well, given how much smaller Fullerton is than Anaheim, these last 13 months there have been just as bad, a little worse.

But just to start with, you’re gonna need this guide to keep track of these last three FPD fatalities. So here we go, starting from the most recent:

1. Jose Naranjo-Cortez

Lemon Park is a small park just north of the Fullerton AMC, frequently frequented by the unhoused. One of those, in recent months, was 46-year old father of six Jose Naranjo-Cortez. Why was he homeless? Because a few months earlier his landlord had kicked him, his mother and his little brother Mike out of a nearby place on the pretext of making a “substantial remodel.” Ah, the old “renoviction” ploy, to get a tenant out and charge much higher rent. We’ve written about that – that tactic is now illegal in LA and elsewhere.

Anyway, being homeless made it hard for Jose, who was schizophrenic, to keep up with his medications, but still he kept to himself and didn’t bother anybody. This past Easter morning a little after midnight, Jose MAY have been holding a “smoldering cardboard box” – at least that’s what the police say. And they say that when they tried to arrest him (for who knows what, being in a park afterhours, holding smoldering cardboard?) he was “erratic and uncooperative.” and resisted being arrested. So they called for backup.

Jose’s little brother Mike (40) had just left the park on his bike, when he saw a bunch of FPD cars speeding toward the park, sirens blaring, toward the grave emergency, so Mike rushed back fearing the worst. Sure enough when he got back to the park, and got past the row of parked cruisers, he saw a “stack” of what Mike estimates as 8-10 cops on top of his brother, some holding him down with their knees, some beating him. Other Fullerton cops stood in a circle around Jose, whose face was already “bruised and puffy” from the blows. (Makes the gang of six Fullerton cops who beat & suffocated Kelly Thomas to death in 2011 – three active, three watching – look pretty small!)

When Mike spoke up, asking “What are you doing to him?” some of the cops rushed over and tackled him, at least giving Jose a brief chance to breathe. They stuck Mike in a patrol car, from where he saw officers put a bag over Jose’s head. Mike started to yell again, why are you doing THAT? One of them said “Because he’s spitting on us,” Mike said “It’s probably just all his blood!” So they pulled Mike out of that car and stuck him in a different car facing the other way, where he couldn’t see what they were doing to his brother any more.

Succumbing to the beatings and the suffocation (knees and bag), Jose surprised the poor Fullerton cops by displaying signs of a “medical emergency” and dying. His cause of death has still not been released by the coroner’s office, and neither the police or the hospital will tell Jose’s family what happened. Meanwhile Mike was arrested for “resisting arrest” and “entering a park after closing hours.” When they took him to the station, Mike says they were laughing and slapping each other on the back. Something is deeply wrong with the culture of the Fullerton Police Department.

We went to the family’s Lemon Park vigil on April 27, and heard a lot about what a great, generous guy Jose was, always helping the homeless before he ever knew he’d become one of them. Family members of other recent police victims were there as well. Overhead in the chilly night sky, an FPD drone hovered over us, keeping an eye on everything.

Jose’s sister Mary discovers the only way to get a response.

How FPD responds to info requests from family members of their victims: “You were not involved.”

FPD is stonewalling the family, but after 45 days they are SUPPOSED to release “relevant” video footage, photos, and audio. Let’s see, that’d be June 9. Till then the family will have no answers as to how exactly Jose died. (Hats off to Mona Darwish of The Register for writing a very good story about this killing, and also kindly including a link to the family’s funeral GoFundMe page.)

Meanwhile this killing reminds us a lot of the killing of Kelly Thomas by another gang of Fullerton cops 14 years ago. The two guiltiest of those cops were removed from the force, and Kelly’s mother and father got settlements, but there should have been jail time for the killers, there should have been consequences for the cops who stood there letting it happen and holding back the crowd, and there should have been a lot more reform.

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Later this week we will tell the stories of Pedro Garcia (killed by FPD this past March) and Alejandro Campos-Rios (killed by FPD in March of 2024.)