Former Paradise Police Officer Patrick Robert Feaster was convicted of involuntary manslaughter after shooting 26-year-old Andrew Nicholas Thomas as Thomas tried to climb out of an overturned SUV following a short police pursuit and rollover crash.
The incident happened shortly after midnight on November 26, 2015, in Paradise, California. According to the California Court of Appeal, Feaster was on patrol when he saw an SUV leave a bar parking lot at a high rate of speed without its lights on. The SUV ran a red light and traveled about 55 to 60 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone before Feaster activated his patrol lights and followed.
The pursuit ended when the SUV crashed and rolled onto its side. The crash ejected 23-year-old passenger Darien Ehorn, who was killed. Andrew Thomas was still inside the overturned vehicle and began climbing out through the passenger-side window.
As Thomas was trying to get out of the SUV, Feaster approached with his Glock .45-caliber handgun drawn. The gun fired once, striking Thomas in the neck. Thomas survived initially but was paralyzed. He died weeks later from complications caused by the gunshot wound.
Feaster claimed the shooting was accidental. But the dash camera from his patrol car captured the pursuit, crash, and shooting, and the recording became central to the criminal case. North State Public Radio reported that the dashcam video showed Feaster’s gun going off as he approached the vehicle, and that it took 11 minutes before he told other emergency personnel his gun may have fired.
Prosecutors initially did not charge Feaster. That changed after Thomas died in December 2015. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey later filed an involuntary manslaughter charge, arguing that Feaster’s handling of the firearm caused Thomas’s death.
The case went to trial in October 2016. Jurors found Feaster guilty of involuntary manslaughter and also found true an allegation that he was armed with a firearm during the offense. The Court of Appeal later summarized the result clearly: Feaster shot Thomas in the neck as Thomas attempted to climb out of the SUV, Thomas later died from complications, and the jury rejected Feaster’s defense enough to convict him.
On December 9, 2016, Feaster was sentenced in Butte County. KRCR reported that Judge James F. Reilley sentenced Feaster to 36 months of probation and 180 days in the Butte County Jail. Feaster had faced a maximum possible sentence of five years in jail.
At sentencing, Thomas’s father told the court he still struggled every day knowing he would never see his son again. Prosecutor Mike Ramsey argued that the case struck at the public’s belief that the law is equally applied and said people sometimes believe there are two standards.
The Court of Appeal upheld Feaster’s conviction in 2018. The appellate court rejected his arguments involving jury instructions and the firearm enhancement, leaving the involuntary manslaughter conviction and probationary sentence in place.
The criminal outcome was limited: a conviction, probation, and six months in county jail. But the facts remain disturbing. Andrew Thomas had just survived a violent rollover crash, his passenger had been ejected, and while he was trying to climb out of the wrecked SUV, a Paradise police officer approached with a gun drawn and shot him.
