On 14th day, protesters march from downtown to remember motorcyclist Daezon Morgan
People gathered for a 14th straight night Thursday in downtown Lexington to call for more accountability in the Lexington Police Department, and to stand in solidarity with protests around the country against racism and police violence.
The group gathered in front of the Fayette County Circuit Courthouse Thursday before taking to the streets to march, sing and chant.
A call had gone out earlier in the day for LGBTQ organizations, and several groups joined the Black Lives Matter protesters downtown. June is Pride Month.
A few organizers in the LGBTQ community were able to coordinate with multiple organizations to show up and support Thursday night’s protest. Roy Harrison and Lexington Fairness chairwoman Liz Sheehan worked to bring the different LGBTQ organizations together to attend.
“We said, ‘how can we help’ and they said ‘we need your bodies, we need folks to come, show up, really demand justice,’” Harrison said. “So we just followed their lead and came here and brought some friends.”
The LGBTQ community has also benefited from the leadership of people of color in the past, Harrison said.
“It’s important because it’s the right thing to do, people are dying,” Harrison said. “Because of this injustice, because of structural racism folks are dying at the hands of police. And the police represent me, the police represent all of us, and that’s wrong. At the end of the day that’s why we’re here.”
After marching downtown, the protesters headed down Richmond Road, where they met with another group that had assembled at Preston Avenue and Richmond Road, the intersection where motorcyclist Daezon Morgan was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver earlier in the week.
That intersection had been the site of a protest Tuesday night as well, with friends and family gathering to remember Morgan, and to call for harsher charges in the case against Matthew Starling, the driver of the vehicle that struck Morgan’s motorcycle. Starling has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in Morgan’s death and pleaded not guilty.
Starling, 30, was driving on Richmond Road Monday night when he turned in front of Morgan, who was on a motorcycle traveling inbound about 8:50 p.m., police said. Morgan died hours later of his injuries, according to police and the Fayette County coroner.
As police investigated, Starling was charged first with an aggravated count of driving under the influence and released from jail Tuesday, according to court records. After Morgan’s death, Starling was charged with second-degree manslaughter and turned himself in, police said.
From the site of the crash, the protest then marched back to Lexington police headquarters on Main Street, where three protesters crossed barricades that police had set up outside. At least two were detained by police. Jared R. Zahabi-Wisdom, a 19-year-old Winchester resident and Elizabeth Moody, a 25-year-old Lexington resident, were both charged with criminal trespassing, police said.
Earlier in the week, protesters had jumped the barricades and occupied the parking ramp for a time.
Live updates from the protest by Herald-Leader journalists:
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 10:29 PM.
