DANVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Danville community members gathered outside of City Hall on Monday to protest what they believe is an unnecessary use of force from an incident back in October 2024.
The Rally for Justice, hosted by Danville Demands Action, held the protest.
“People are outraged. People are tired in this community of everything being pushed under the rug. It’s so much stuff that goes on in our City Hall and our courthouse that people are tired of it," said Cheryl Burton, a Danville Demands Action member. “Our community needs to come together. All of the hate needs to stop. All of the racism needs to stop. Every- all of it needs to stop and we need to get our city council- we need to get our city hall cleaned up. We need new leadership.”
The protest takes place a month after we shared with you the difficult story of 66-year-old John Hardwick, who has frontal temporal dementia and was arrested at a Danville Walmart on attempted shoplifting charges on Oct. 15, 2024.
The day after LEX 18 shared with you that story, a Boyle County judge dismissed all charges with prejudice. We received security and body cam footage from Hardwick's attorney, Ephraim Helton, showing Hardwick appearing confused after the beer he attempted to buy was confiscated and placed in customer service.
WATCH MORE: Dementia Patient's Arrest Sparks Petition
Walmart loss prevention contacted three Danville Police Officers, Ben Ray, Brandon Conley, and TJ Godbey, who were already at Walmart regarding a separate incident. You can hear in the body cam video that the officers claim Hardwick is shoplifting even after the Walmart employee says Hardwick did not shoplift and was not past a point of sale.
Things quickly escalated as the Walmart security video showed Officer TJ Godbey attempting to place Hardwick in handcuffs, then smashing his face into a cash register, taking him to the ground, and striking him six times.
"I hope we have greater awareness. I mean this was an elderly person with dementia. There's many people out there with just mental health problems," said Helton.
“I just want to make sure people understand that yes justice needs to be served absolutely, everybody deserves due process but this is being tried in the court of public opinion, and in my opinion it looks like the jury pool is being poisoned," said Elaine Wilson-Reddy, who is a Danville city commissioners wife.
Since our story aired, thousands of people across Kentucky have voiced their rage over the incident. Even started a petition to demand the dismissal of Officer TJ Godbey and the suspension of two other officers, Ben Ray and Brandon Conley.
This brings us to today's protest, where a dozen people came out to fight back against police brutality and demand the officers involved be held accountable for their actions.
“I’m happy we had so many people come out. It seems like there was people from all different walks of life and belief, you know," said Danville Demand Action member James Porter. "You know it doesn’t matter what political side you’re on even I think a lot of us here may not get along politically, but I feel like we can all be united in this one thing. That police brutality is wrong and we should stand against it at all costs.”
“There’s so many innocent people who are being impacted by this. There are phone calls still coming into the 911 center. There are phone calls coming into city hall, people are getting emails with death threats," explains Wilson-Reddy.
“I do not agree with anybody calling and threatening the workers, they have nothing to do it. These people are trying to come to work to pay their bills. Do not be calling and threatening the workers of the City of Danville," Burton stresses.
