VALLEJO, CA (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) – Jay King, best known for founding Grammy winning group Club Nouveau, is on a mission to avenge his brother’s death.
King was stunned last month to discover his younger brother, Michael Todd White, age 46, had been killed on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 by the Vallejo Police Department.
Since his brother’s death, King has been trying to bring attention to the issue of widespread police brutality in the US, particularly in his hometown of Vallejo, CA.
King fielded calls recently from listeners on his online radio show "The Way I See It" on BlogTalkRadio.com to draw attention to the matter according to the press release.
It has been reported that White had been involved in a minor dispute with a neighbor on June 15th. After a brief altercation, it is alleged that he retreated back to his home where he resided with his girlfriend. The Vallejo Police Department (VDP) responded to a call about the incident, with a full force of six police cruisers, followed by an additional six or more cruisers plus motorcycle law enforcement personnel according to the press release.
After entering the home and allegedly trapping White in the small bathroom of his trailer home, the VPD took the hinges off of his bathroom door and arrested him without incident according to the press release. Then a Code 4 call went out to dispatch alerting that the situation was under control.
However after allegedly removing all residents from the home and handcuffing White, a disturbance took place and White was tasered several times. A Code 3 call then went out to dispatch to send an ambulance. King says this is unusual since a Code 3 is often called when someone is injured or if the officer involved is alerting the dispatch personnel that they're about to taser a suspect. It is suspected that the call to dispatch never occurred while arresting White, leading many to believe White was tasered while handcuffed according to the press release.
White was removed from the residence lifeless, dropped on a cement slab and then put on a gurney according to the press release. Although reports have White expiring at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo, some believe that his body was taken to Kaiser so a doctor could pronounce him dead on arrival and his body could be taken to the city morgue.
Michael White's family is calling for an investigation because the officers involved have not been put on administrative leave and continue to work according to the press release.
"We are not going to rest until the Vallejo Police Department and City Hall embark on a full scale investigation regarding the murder of my brother,” announced Jay King. "We expect the police to do as the shield says on their cars 'Serve & Protect.' Too often the police look more like a gangster outfit that we should all be afraid of," adds King according to the press release. "We have to speak up as a community and change the way the police patrol our neighborhoods. My brother has had a checkered past but that doesn't give anyone the right to murder him. The police department in Vallejo has a long history of using tasers along with unnecessary force.”
King and his family are considering pressing murder charges against the officers that tasered Michael Todd White, while allegedly handcuffed and helpless. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
