Image of Doug Harless, 61, who was shot and killed by police on December 23. Credit: LEX18 via The Independent.
Stolen weed eater leads to a man being killed
Written by: Conner Drigotas
FIVE SHOTS IN THE DARK
In the evening of Monday, December 23, 2024, a man named Hobert Buttery was arrested in Kentucky, and confessed to stealing a “little baseboard heater” and a Stihl weed eater from a property belonging to Laurel County Judge Executive David Westerfield.
Buttery allegedly told the police officers that he had pawned the space heater, but they could find the Stihl weed eater at a house on Vanzant road, in the town of Lily.
In response, a warrant was issued, and just a few hours after Buttery’s 7:34 PM arrest, an armed group of at least five London Kentucky police officers went to recover the stolen property.
“They went to the wrong address,” says Buttrey.
Footage from a neighbor’s security camera shows that at 11:50:24 PM officers surrounded a house at 511 Vanzant Road and declared themselves as police. At 11:51:32 PM, five shots rang out and an innocent man in his early sixties named Douglass Harless was shot and killed in his home.
Buttrey reportedly formerly lived at 515 Vanzant, but says he never gave the police a house number. “The way they done it, everything’s wrong.” says Buttrey, “They didn’t have any reason to go to that man's house.”
Though officers did not have body cameras, review of released audio discussion between officers on the scene and Dispatch shows they state “489 Vanzant Road” at least five times while they stood on Harless’s property, 250 yards away from their intended target, at house number 511. The numbers were prominently displayed on the same porch from which the yet unnamed officer shot and killed Harless.
At 0:49 in the video titled "KSP search warrant gives new details in deadly London, Ky. police shooting," a search warrant obtained by WKYT reveals that the case centers around a stolen weed eater.
In a release posted to Facebook, London police say that Harless “produced a firearm and pointed it at officers,” but that coverall statement kind of misses the point.
Upon having your front door assaulted by strangers, would you not seek to protect yourself or your family? Similar to the case of Bryan Malinowski, the officers killed the home's occupant less than a minute after making their presence known, and did not attempt any peaceful communication.
In this case, a phone call or other peaceful outreach would have clarified the incorrect address and given Harless a chance to respond.
At 0:43 in the video titled "KSP search warrant gives new details in deadly London, Ky. police shooting," a search warrant obtained by WKYT reveals that the case centers around a stolen weed eater.
Through footage caught by the neighbors security camera, we are able to see officers approaching the house and hear the five shots. Instead of immediately reporting to dispatch that shots were fired, when matching the video timestamps with the timestamps of the Dispatch audio, we see that the officers held a brief conference in the driveway before calling in.
According to Buttery, the aggressive response and the killing should not have unfolded as it did. “It never would’ve come to that if it wasn’t whose stuff it was,” he told the local news station, WKYT, in an interview while in prison.
While courts have ruled (repeatedly) that police officers have no obligation to protect you, the Blue Wall of Silence is one way of expressing the insular protective culture Buttery is alleging led to this killing.
This sentiment is echoed by civil rights attorney John H. Bryon who called attention to the driveway conference in a video analysis. “Then after the shooting, the officers apparently have not called it in.” he says as the footage plays, “They instead, sort of, regroup and they have this, sort of, huddle in this poor guys yard, as if to get their facts straight before they even call dispatch.”
Further supporting the idea that swift and careless action was taken because of Westerfield’s involvement. Evidence has come to light showing the relationship between law enforcement officers and the Judge Executive appears to be cozy.
At 1:03 in the video titled "KSP search warrant gives new details in deadly London, Ky. police shooting," a search warrant obtained by WKYT reveals that the case centers around a stolen weed eater.
In a leaked phone call between an Officer Hale and David Westerfield that appears to have happened after the killing, on December 24, the Laurel County Judge Executive directs police officers to go to his property to recover additional lawn equipment that belongs to his nephew. He also instructs Officer Hale to remove a homeless individual allegedly living on his property there. If they don’t, Westerfield says he will take matters into his own hands, which he does not want to do because he “…might do something unethical.”
Instead of challenging the threat against the citizens he has sworn to protect and serve, Officer Hale responds: “I know one thing, I’ll take care of you.”
While the truth of Buttery’s allegation and Bryon’s analysis is yet to be fully realized, the raid and killing were certainly shoddy and aggressive police work, and a clear example of disregard for Human Respect. Officers are not granted special leave to initiate violence, even to protect the interests of fellow law enforcement officials or, in this case, their family members.
As stated under “Values” on the homepage of the London, Kentucky Police Department website: “The London City Police Department will always treat everyone with the utmost respect and will make every effort to preserve the dignity of all members of society.”
They are falling short of those ideals.
As of publication, police have still not released the warrant or said what address was on it.
TOWN CRIER
The London City and Kentucky State Police have not fulfilled Freedom of Information Act (FIOA) requests for the search warrant or other missing information made by Respect America and other outlets. These documents would hopefully lead to clarity on three points:
Who signed the warrant?
This may clarify how the chain of command authorized the raid and help dismiss or confirm allegations of overzealous police activity as it relates to the involvement of Mr. Westerfield.How did officers end up at 511 Vanzant, and why were they looking for 489 Vanzant in the first place? Where did the address information go bad, and by whose hand?
Some news outlets have reported that the addresses may be incorrectly labeled in the county Dispatch mapping system.What happened on the porch and within the house during those few seconds leading up to Harless’s death?
These are just three of the many questions being asked by local residents, with little in the way of answers thus far. London Mayor Randall Weddle said that he is not releasing information, a request made by the Kentucky State Police (KSP) as they conduct an investigation.
That isn’t a good enough answer for anyone. Local reporters and members of the community have protested, held a “March for Justice,” and attempted to get answers from city council members. On January 6, 2025, a city council meeting saw more than an hour of questions and comments from the public in attendance.
“I want to speak to everyone here…” one resident said, “[Harless] gets a knock on the door and then just gets shot. If that were you, would you get up with a gun? Yeah. So every one of us would get shot, right? And by city police that have no business in the county.”
Local officials appear clueless, with Fox56 reporting locally that the city council members learned about the event along with the public and had to file their own FOIA requests (which were also unsuccessful). “All I can say is we found out by either Facebook or the news, and we should have found out differently than that,” Justin Young, a city council member, said.
Some members of the city council even shared with WYMT News that they were not even aware that London police officers had stopped using body-worn cameras. That policy went into effect in March 2023, at the direction of London Police Chief Chuck Johnson who cited broken cameras, the acquisition of their provider rendering the technology obsolete, and a $30,000 price tag to replace them.
Image of the London Police Department's directive suspending the use of body-worn cameras. Credit: WKYT.
Although there were no body cameras, that does not mean the only footage of the December 23 event is the neighbors security footage. According to the Lexington Herald Leader, the Kentucky State Police also recovered a light bulb security camera from Harless’s front porch. They report that, “Official records say the camera was functioning and believed to have captured interactions between Harless and the officers.”
We can expect more information, but that does little for the deceased and may offer little comfort to the living.
Accountability for police officers who engage in heinous acts is hard to come by. Accountability for errant judges is even more rare. The still unidentified officer who shot Douglass Harless is on administrative leave and the identity of the warrant signing judge is still under wraps. While Mr. Harless is laid to rest by his surviving daughter and grandson, members of the London community, among others, are left with little information.
“How did it lead to this? I know that's what everybody else is asking too.” Buttrey said, handcuffs jangling in front of the camera while being interviewed by WDRB news, “It should have never led to this. A stolen weed eater should not lead up to a man being killed. I don't care where you're at or what's going on. That shouldn't happen.”
