Brother of Recording Artist Jay King, Killed by Police

image_pdfimage_print

Vallejo, CA -Music industry veteran and popular music personality Jay 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. The outspoken artist, who is best known for founding the Grammy awarding winning group, Club Nouveau, has been on a mission ever since to bring attention to the issue of widespread police brutality in this country and 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. The show is archived at archived at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/jay-king .

It has been reported that White had been involved in a minor dispute with a neighbor. After a brief altercation, 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 a motorcycle law enforcement personnel. After entering the home and 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. A Code 4 call went out to dispatch alerting that the situation was under control.

However after 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. As King reveals, 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. The call to dispatch never occurred while arresting White leading many to believe White was tasered while handcuffed.

White was removed from the residence lifeless, dropped on a cement slab and then put on a gurney. Although reports have White expiring at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo, it is widely believed 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.

Jay King Mourns the Death of his Brother

Michael White’s family is calling for an investigation because the officers involved have not been put on administrative leave and continue to work. “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. “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.

Follow this story and listen to Jay King on BlogTalkRadio every Sunday from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. PST on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Jay-King.

Share