Netflix's Worst Neighbor Ever reveals Jamal Thomas' six-word police warning before fatal shooting
A man issued a chilling warning to police in the lead up to him fatally shooting his neighbor – yet he was released from custody just 48 hours later.
Jamal 'JT' Thomas initially lived next door to the Miles and Melina Armstead in the Eastmont Hills neighborhood in Oakland, California.
JT lived with his parents, but they were evicted from the property in August 2019. He ended up squatting at the house, despite there being new people living there. During this time he started harassing the Armsteads for months on end.
What started as late night door knocks and bell rings eventually became window smashing and verbal abuse.
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According to Melina, their windows were smashed with rocks or bricks more than 20 times during JT's reign of terror, she says in Netflix's latest documentary, Worst Neighbor Ever. It got so bad that they had to board up their windows to protect themselves from JT's tirades.
Miles had confronted JT about his behavior, but to no avail. It got so bad that the father-of-three would spend his nights sat on his porch with the family's Boxer dog and a baseball bat.
Eventually Miles and Melina filed a restraining order against JT that ordered him to stay 100 yards away from them and their home. Then, in February 2020, JT and Miles ended up in an argument with each other and the cops were called.
In bodycam footage shown in Worst Neighbor Ever, the responding officer seemingly downplayed the seriousness of the situation and said that both Miles and JT were acting like '12-year-old girls'.
The Oakland Police Department cop shouts at them: "Grown ass men can't listen to simple instructions."
"Acting like 12-year-old girls, both of you guys," he adds as he orders JT to get into the back of his car.
As he's taken into custody, JT gives them an ominous warning and says: "I'm gonna kill him next time."
"Guess what guys, I'll be right back," he tells the cops. "I'm gonna kill [Miles] next time."
After making these remarks, JT was arrested for making criminal threats. The Armstead family thought that this was the end of the harassment they had been receiving from JT, but he was released from custody just 48 hours later.
They were not informed that he was back on the streets. Per Civil Rights attorney Adante Pointer, who is interviewed in the documentary, JT had been on 'the highest level of supervised probation' at the time of his February 2020 arrest so should have remained in custody.
His probation started in 2012 and was expected to run until 2022.
Fast forward to May 2020, and JT stuck to his word and fatally shot Miles.
At the time of his death, Melina was pregnant with their first child together. She gave birth to their daughter two months later. Miles is survived by their daughter, Ava, and his three kids whom he shared with his first wife.
In 2024, JT was found guilty of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and possession of a firearm by a felon with priors. He was later sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 28 years and eight months.
All episodes of Worst Neighbor Ever are now streaming on Netflix.
Topics: True crime, Netflix, Film and TV
Niamh Shackleton