A disturbing police bodycam video recently resurfaced showing a gay couple in Kentucky verbally assaulted and arrested in their home in the middle of the night. The pair had allegedly called the Graves County Sheriff's Department too many times.
The footage, which appeared online in early November but only gained public attention three weeks later is worthy of a gripping crime thriller full of suspense. It shows a group of officers arresting two men, Billy Hamilton and Patric Rodriguez, in their own home on February 22, 2017.
Disclaimer: The video contains offensive language
Hamilton said in the description to his YouTube video that police first knocked on his door earlier in the day, asking for his husband, Rodriguez. He claimed they never bothered to explain why they were looking for him.
Hamilton says he made numerous calls to the non-emergency line seeking an answer, all in vain. The nightmare began later that night when police came back to their door without a warrant. This time around Rodriguez, who had been drinking, answered the door.
“I thought ‘Oh hey, they’re here for something in the neighborhood and can I help out?’ I came out with the intention to help them – assist them – with whatever they were there for," Rodriguez said, as cited by WKMS. “I had no idea why they were there to do what happened next.”
As it turned out, police came to talk to Hamilton, never explaining why.
Things got worse when it turned out that Rodriguez had accidentally locked himself out of the house. Hamilton is meanwhile filming the incident from a second-floor window.
A police officer, who Hamilton and Rodriguez identify as Chief Deputy Davant Ramage, goes ballistic and is seen banging on the couple's door.
“I will tell you right now you sh*t apple redneck, if you raise your voice to me one more time I will throw your ass right off this porch and drag you to jail. Now you need to understand that,” the officer warns.
Law enforcement officers discuss how to enter the house, threatening to shoot the couple’s dog. They bring a sledgehammer from their car to break down the door. In the long run, Hamilton unlocked the door and the officers arrested him.
“Not immediately evident in the video, I was tasered in my own home!” he wrote in the description to the video. Police said Hamilton was arrested for “harassing communications” after calling the Sheriff's Department too many times earlier that day inquiring about why they were looking for Rodriguez, as well as disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to WKMS. Rodriguez was arrested for alcohol intoxication and disorderly conduct. Both were released the next morning. It later emerged that the original reason that police had been looking for Rodriguez was an outstanding fine in another county.
The couple, who recently moved to Kentucky from Southern California, say that until the incident happened, they felt comfortable. Not any longer.
“Until this happened I felt extremely comfortable, now we’re very paranoid,” Rodriguez told WKMS. When we’re in the living room we look at every car passing by, it’s just instinctive – ‘Is that a cop? Is that a cop? Are they here again?’ It’s changed our comfort level quite a bit.”
The couple’s attorney branded the incident “The most extreme case of homophobic police brutality I’ve seen here,” according to lgbtqnation.com.