Police Search for Clues in Killing of Respected Professor

San Diego police are trying to figure out what brought UC San Diego Professor Charles William Thomas to the East San Diego neighborhood where he was killed Friday and why anyone wanted to stab him to death.

Homicide Lt. Dan Berglund said Tuesday that Thomas, 64, identified his killer only as a black man to a passerby who drove the mortally wounded professor to a local hospital after finding him slumped inside his car on El Cajon Boulevard. Police said Thomas was stabbed numerous times in the abdomen, chest and side while seated in the driver’s seat.

Thomas was a highly regarded academician and psychologist who had taught at UCSD since 1971. In addition to being recognized as “the father of black psychology,” Thomas also was an expert in urban and African-American culture.

According to a police report of the incident, Thomas was attacked shortly before 11 p.m. Berglund said Thomas was stabbed “somewhere pretty close” to the Bank of America in the 4100 block of El Cajon Boulevard, where he was found.

Earlier, police had theorized that Thomas might have been attacked while using an automated teller machine. However, Berglund said that Thomas was not a customer of the bank and did not have a withdrawal receipt from the bank in his possession.

“Mr. Thomas drove up in front of the bank’s automatic teller machine, and pulled up on the sidewalk, probably in an effort to summon help,” Berglund said. “He was in a bad way. He honked his horn, opened the door and motioned for a person at the machine to assist him.”

However, the person at the machine probably assumed that Thomas was drunk and ignored him, said Berglund. Homicide investigators want to talk to the man as a witness. Berglund said the witness appears to be a white male in a video taken by a bank camera that monitors automated teller transactions.

Moments later, another vehicle with three people inside pulled up by the machine. The trio saw Thomas slumped over his steering wheel and assumed that he was drunk, Berglund said.

“However, when the man who used the machine returned to his vehicle, Thomas opened his car’s door and fell over,” Berglund said.

The three people in the other car went to Thomas’ assistance. Thomas got up and crawled into the back seat of his car, said police. One of the three people, identified only as a male of Indochinese descent, drove Thomas’ car, with Thomas in the back seat, to nearby Villa View Community Hospital.

They arrived at 11:14 p.m. and Thomas underwent emergency surgery. He died at approximately 1:40 a.m. Saturday.

“His last words were to the man who drove him to the hospital. He told the witness that a black man had stabbed him,” Berglund said.

Investigators are at a loss trying to determine a motive for the slaying. Thomas’ wallet, along with money and credit cards, were found on his person. Berglund said police are attempting to reconstruct Thomas’ movements on the night he was slain.

“We know that earlier in the evening he had dinner with a friend in La Jolla and was in good spirits when he left. We don’t know much about what happened later until he was stabbed,” Berglund said.

He declined to identify Thomas’ friend, but said the person is not a suspect in the killing.

Thomas’ wife died about 2 1/2 years ago. He lived in El Cajon with one of his sons.

Meanwhile, James Del Rio, a retired Michigan judge and friend of Thomas, started a reward fund Tuesday to help police track down Thomas’ killer. Del Rio said the reward fund totaled about $4,000 by Tuesday evening.

The reward is an independent effort by Del Rio and other black leaders to brink Thomas’ killer to justice. He urged anyone with information about the killing to call him at 454-8697.