BY JENNIFER CABRERA

[Editor’s note: Since Sergeant Robert Kennedy was the only officer penalized after this event, he will be the sole officer mentioned by name.]

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – According to a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) Internal Affairs report, officers did not breach any policies while pursuing Anthony Lee Gainey, Jr., into the Gainesville Christian Center during a church service in October 2024. However, a Sergeant was reprimanded for a social media post he made following the incident, and GPD will update their policies to mandate that officers provide their names and badge numbers upon request.

Incident began with a call about shoplifting

On October 27, 2024, police responded to a report of a shoplifter at the Dollar General located at 1080 NE 16th Avenue. The caller mentioned that the shoplifter went behind the counter, causing the clerk to fear for her safety. An officer spotted Gainey walking east on NE 16th Avenue and instructed him to halt, but Gainey allegedly fled. Even after a second officer arrived and deployed a taser to subdue Gainey, he allegedly stood up and ran into the church (1433 NE 16th Avenue), continuing to resist multiple officers who were trying to restrain him.

Church members posted videos and statements about disrespecting “God and the black church”

Church members later posted videos on social media, with statements about the church being “raided by GPD in the middle of church service.” One post said, “They disrespected God and the black church they wouldn’t busted up into a white church.” Church members and family members stated in these posts that Gainey had mental health issues and that officers should have let church members handle the disturbance.

Internal Affairs investigation began after a report that a Sergeant acted improperly on scene and posted on Facebook about the incident

During a GPD review of the incident on October 28, the report noted, “it was reported that Sergeant Kennedy may have acted improperly on scene.” Later in the day, Chief Nelson Moya received a screenshot of a Facebook post that appeared to have been posted by Kennedy: “I am far far far from a religious person…however… I do recognize when a room full of people need Jesus in their lives. Hypocritical heathens!!!!  On a completely unrelated topic, I work with some real good cops. Amen.”

Click here for details of the events leading up to Gainey’s arrest at Gainesville Christian Center.

According to the report, body camera footage from the first two officers involved in the incident – the officer who first responded to the call from Dollar General and the officer who responded to his call for backup after Gainey fled – supports their account of their repeated commands to Gainey to stop and his continued aggressive behavior and failure to stop, including pulling away from one officer and pulling taser probes out before getting up to run again. The first officer’s taser reportedly failed to fire twice, once before and once after Gainey was tased by the second officer.

Officers tried to detain Gainey after he ran into the church’s sanctuary

After Gainey ran into the church, two more officers arrived, and when they entered the church, they saw Gainey in the center aisle of the sanctuary, standing near the front, on the other side of a man who was later identified as Gainey’s father. As the officers approached, Gainey’s father identified himself and asked what was going on. As one officer focused on getting Gainey to put his hands behind his back, Gainey’s father kept saying, “Hold on, hold on,” and at one point he can be seen placing his body between the officer and his son. The officer told Gainey’s father that Gainey was under arrest, and Gainey’s father reportedly continued to help Gainey resist efforts to detain him, saying, “Let me control him” several times. Officers eventually gained physical control of Gainey.

As the officers escorted Gainey back down the aisle toward the front doors of the church, body camera video showed Gainey grabbing an officer’s gun, but the report notes that it appears none of the officers saw this.

A crowd gathered around officers after they moved Gainey to the foyer

When Gainey and the officers entered the foyer of the church, Gainey was still resisting and was placed in a seated position on the floor. The report notes that voices can be heard in the background, screaming that Gainey has mental health issues. At this time, officers were struggling to get Gainey’s hands behind his back.

The report states that the body camera video shows members of the congregation crowding around the officers as they continued trying to place Gainey in handcuffs. More officers had arrived, and the foyer area was very crowded. By the time two Sergeants arrived, two minutes after the first officers entered the church, a large crowd had gathered around the officers trying to control Gainey; the officers successfully placed Gainey in handcuffs at about that time, and a rip-hobble was used to secure his ankles.

Gainey was carried out of the church by officers, and EMS was called because of the reported mental health issue and the use of a taser.

Dollar General clerk said she thought Gainey might harm her

The first officer who engaged with Gainey went back to the Dollar General, where the clerk said Gainey told her he would be paying with “tariff” and that he owned the store. He told her he needed $100 from the register, and when she said she couldn’t do that, he allegedly walked behind the register and grabbed a pack of cigarettes and a pack of lighters. She said Gainey did not verbally threaten her, but she felt threatened and felt he might harm her, especially when he walked behind the counter. She said that after the incident, Gainey stood in the doorway, smoked a cigarette, told her his name several times, and told her to “tell them who he was.”

Church members told officers they wouldn’t have “run into a big white church”

Body camera footage from officers inside the church shows Sergeant Kennedy repeatedly asking church members to back up and asking the pastor to ask people to back up. The pastor reportedly said he was calling the Chief, and Sergeant Kennedy told him to call the Chief.

Sergeant Kennedy can be heard telling several people (separately) that he will speak to them “in a minute,” but after someone said, “You wouldn’t have run into (inaudible) church and did that,” Kennedy responded, “I’m sorry, what?” Gainey’s father reportedly yelled, “You wouldn’t have run into a big white church and did that,” and Kennedy responded, “We’re not going to do that today, sir.”

Over the next minute or so, Gainey’s father can be heard yelling in the background, and Sergeant Kennedy asks him to stop yelling and says someone will come talk to him in a few minutes. According to the report, Gainey continues to yell “something to the effect of, ‘y’all didn’t have to do it like y’all did.’” When an officer says something that is inaudible on the body camera, Kennedy tells the officer not to engage with Gainey’s father and let him keep yelling. Gainey’s father can be heard yelling, “Y’all act like the guy shot somebody,” and he says that is his son and the officers “didn’t have to do all of that.” Someone else can be heard saying they would not have done that in a white church.

“All crackers, all white people, all white people, all of ’em, [not] a black man in the crowd.”

More people come out of the church, and one can be heard saying, “They wouldn’t have went into a white church and disrespected them like that.” Another person who appears to be pointing at the officers says, “All crackers, all white people, all white people, all of ’em, [not] a black man in the crowd.” Someone else says officers treated Gainey like a dog. The same person asks for the names and badge numbers of all the officers. One person says it was “like a bunch of pit bulls,” and someone else yells that they are not trying to stop the officers from doing their jobs.

Officers start moving Gainey to Citizens Field

About five minutes after Gainey ran into the church, a second Sergeant arrived and told Kennedy he had spoken to the Chief and they should take Gainey to Citizens Field so EMS can treat him. 

Sergeant Kennedy tells dispatch that they are moving Gainey to Citizens Field, and when he gets off the radio, he gives someone his name and badge number. The pastor then walks up and says, “I got the Chief on the phone. Yeah. I’m very professional. We would have brought him out to you but you interrupt my worship service.” (The pastor handed the phone to the second Sergeant, as described below.)

More yelling can be heard, and Kennedy asks people to stop yelling. He then spends some time providing names and badge numbers of the officers on scene but refuses to write them down, noting that one of the church members is recording the information on a phone.

About seven minutes after Gainey ran into the church, Sergeant Kennedy can be heard telling the officers to stop engaging with bystanders and go to Citizens Field; he later explained that he wanted all the officers to leave together because some of the church members were still angry.

On the way to Citizens Field, Sergeant Kennedy calls a Lieutenant (the Shift Commander) and says it was a mess; he said he had never been called “cracker” by people in a church congregation. He says their behavior was extremely racist and tells the Lieutenant what they’d said about that not happening if it had been a white church. The Lieutenant says he is on the way because he’d heard a hostile crowd over the radio and “figured a complaint was coming.”

At Citizens Field, Gainey says he owns the Dollar General

At Citizens Field, Sergeant Kennedy checks on Gainey and offers to let him sit on the edge of the seat of the patrol vehicle, with the door open. Gainey agrees, and Sergeant Kennedy asks him his name; he says it’s Jesse. Kennedy asks him if he knows why he is in handcuffs, and he says it was because he was harassed. Kennedy asks if he’s injured, and Gainey says he doesn’t know but he was hit by a taser. When asked if he knows why he was hit with a taser, Gainey says he doesn’t know. Gainey says he wants to know why he was harassed by the store owner, and Kennedy says there was a shoplifting incident at the store; Gainey says he doesn’t shoplift because he owns the store. He says he can’t present the pink slips right now, but he isn’t playing any games. 

Kennedy says the store reported that he was shoplifting, and when he was contacted by the police, he took off running. Gainey says he did not take off running; he got tased and took off running. 

When the Lieutenant arrives, about 15 minutes after Gainey ran into the church, Kennedy introduces him to Gainey and explains that there was an incident at the Dollar General and Gainey got tased and ran. Gainey interjects that he is the owner of the Dollar General.

While Gainey is being treated by EMS, Kennedy walks over to where another Sergeant is telling the Lieutenant that the City Manager had called Chief Moya because the pastor called the City Manager.

Kennedy tells the Lieutenant that he is disgusted by the actions of the congregation toward the police. The other Sergeant says he tried to go back and explain to the church members why GPD had entered the church and was met with, “If this was a white church, this wouldn’t have happened.” Kennedy says he was called a cracker and said officers were called “racist and something similar to a pack of wild dogs.” 

Debriefing at Citizens Field

During the debriefing at Citizens Field, an officer says the scene inside the church was “pandelirium” and officers “were made to be the bad guys, the ‘cracker’ cops.”

One officer says the church members might not have known what happened outside, and the Lieutenant agrees that “they did not know what was going on and assumed we were doing something we weren’t supposed to be doing.”

Another officer says the victim from the Dollar General pulled over to the side of the road and thanked officers for arresting Gainey “because she was so scared.”

Sergeant Kennedy says it was “disgusting behavior from a church.”

The body cameras were turned off at that point because officers were no longer in contact with the public.

Kennedy: Crowd impeded the safe performance of officers’ duties, refused to back up

In a supplemental report, Sergeant Kennedy reported that when he arrived, a crowd had gathered around officers and Gainey in the vestibule, and “the crowd was close enough to the officers to impede the safe performance of their duties,” so he told the church members to back up; he said they did not back up and were hostile to the officers.

Second Sergeant’s body camera video

The second Sergeant’s body camera shows a church member saying, “So, they mad at us how we’re responding. It’s how they came. If they would have went to the pastor and said, hey, we need to go or whatever and blocked the door, if they blocked the door, we wouldn’t have had a problem. They ran in the middle of service, came in, ransacked him, tackled him in the middle of service, and threw him on the ground.” The Sergeant says the officers were concerned about a safety issue, and the church member responds that church members know Gainey. The officer’s response is inaudible, but the church member responds in a less aggressive tone, “I can understand that.”

Another church member is shown yelling at the same Sergeant, “He’s sick. They were steady telling you he’s sick and y’all handled him like a dog. It’s not right.” The Sergeant’s response is covered by background noise, but he says something about getting help for Gainey. The church member yells, “It’s nothing you can say to [explain] what you did… It’s wrong. You’re wrong.” When the first church member says the Sergeant wasn’t in the church and points at another officer outside, the second church member says, “It’s all of ’em because they all look like the same…”

Several people tell the Sergeant as they walk by, “Y’all wouldn’t have done that in a white church.”

“You interrupted my service praising God… He didn’t have no gun, no knife, no nothing.”

After the pastor calls Chief Moya, he hands the phone to this Sergeant, who walks away a short distance to talk to Moya. The pastor approaches and says, “It’s embarrassing, man. You interrupt my service… All you had to do was tell me and I would have got him out.” The Sergeant asks him to stop yelling and says he’s trying to explain what happened, but the pastor replies, “I don’t care what happened; I would have got him out of there.” The pastor continues, “You interrupted my service praising God… He didn’t have no gun, no knife, no nothing,” as the Sergeant responds, “Ok” to each sentence.

In this Sergeant’s supplemental report, he wrote that he heard on the radio that the suspect had been tased and had removed the probes and continued running. He said that when he reached the church, he could tell the crowd was angry; he initially thought that was because they were mad at the suspect for disrupting the service but then realized they were mad at GPD. He wrote that he tried several times to explain to church members what had happened, but “overall was met with resistance.” He wrote that one or two people seemed to listen to what he said, but “as more people interjected, he was not able to make progress with the conversation.”

Interview of Sergeant Kennedy

On Novemer 9, 2024, Sergeant Kennedy was interviewed for the Internal Affairs investigation, and Kennedy said he had told officers to go outside so everyone could calm down, and then he intended to re-engage with church members. He said that at the time, he did not know the identity of the suspect or his relationships to the church members or the pastor. He later reiterated that, other than a woman yelling that she was a clinical social worker, he didn’t know anyone’s relationship to the church or to Gainey.

Kennedy said he was following “policy and procedure” when he verbally provided names and badge numbers and that he had refused to answer questions as they were moving Gainey to Citizens Field because he “did not want to leave anybody behind with a hostile crowd” and believed the Lieutenant would follow up with the church members.

Kennedy said he believed officers “were professional, nobody engaged, no one (including himself) spoke poorly to anyone or treated them unfairly.” He said his plan was to regroup at Citizens Field, figure out the next step, and “let the boss know what’s going on.”

At the end of the interview, Kennedy said it was a “difficult call,” and he had never experienced anything like it involving a church. He said there were probably things he could have done diifferently, but “considering the totality of the circumstances (protecting the officers from the crowd, protecting the individual they have in custody and getting him medical care), he is making decisions in a split second and thought he made good decisions within policy, procedure, and state law.”

Facebook post

On October 28, 2024, Chief Moya received a screenshot of a Facebook post authored by “Robert Kennedy” that read, “I am far far far from a religious person… however… I do recognize when a room full of people need Jesus in their lives. Hypocritical heathers!!!! On a completely unrelated topic, I work with some real good cops. Amen.”

Another post was reportedly found on the account that read, “Purely hypothetical situation… I would 100% take the same cops into the same situation/call 100 times and expect the same outcome. #100% #IpreferSatNightsOverSundayMornings #I’veGotaMillion$On’sinners’vs’allegedsaints’ #DidTheRightThings #WeWakeUpTooEarlyToDoTheWrongThing.”

Responding to a comment from another GPD officer on the second post, Kennedy wrote, “this is purely a hypothetical situation as I would never talk about work stuff on social media. But if I did encounter a situation at work similar to this I would [take] the same cops doing the same thing. Everyday.”

Kennedy was interviewed on November 10 about the post and said he made the post and the comments: “Yes, I did. 100%.” He continued, “Before you start asking questions, I would like to say it’s on me.” He said he made a huge mistake by improperly venting his stressors and emotions and that the posts were “an anomaly.” He said he has a support system that he relies on to “make sure his stress finds a different outlet rather than posting stupid ‘s***’ on Facebook.” 

Kennedy said the stress was less about the call because “there was emotion on the call” but he was told he was “very matter of fact,” so the stress came from the idea that someone was going to “look at his actions through a microscope and that is very stressful.” Kennedy agreed that the post could be divisive and added, “I’m 1000% ashamed, 1000% apologetic for having so many people having to do so much work for something stupid that I did. That’s not what I’m here for.”

Conclusions

The report concludes that the first officer properly detained Gainey, the use of tasers by the first two officers followed GPD policies, and the officers followed policy when they followed Gainey into the church.

That policy reads, “Exigent Circumstances: An officer may enter a structure when he/she has justifiable cause, clearly articulated, that led him/her to believe that waiting for a warrant would unduly compromise the safety of persons, the recovery of evidence, or the prevention or detection of a serious crime.”

Officers were justified in pursuing Gainey into the church

The report states that the officers were justified in pursuing Gainey into the church because of concern about effects of the taser on Gainey and concern for the safety of the church attendees “based on [Gainey’s] defiance and active resistance toward officers, which indicate he may become aggressive.”

The report states that officers would have been justified in increasing the level of their response when they encountered Gainey inside the church sanctuary because of Gainey’s “initial escalation of resistance as well as physical interference from the parishioner,” Gainey’s father.

The report also states that officers would have been justified in charging Gainey’s father with resisting an officer without violence and/or battery on a law enforcement officer; officers also could have charged Gainey with resisting an officer with violence but did not.

“This review did not identify any misconduct on the part of the officers” involved in the investigation or arrest

That section of the report concludes, “This review did not identify any misconduct on the part of the officers involved in investigating the crime that was reported as well as the subsequent arrest of the suspect.”

The allegation that Kennedy violated a GPD General Order regarding virtues such as patience, empathy, and compassion was not sustained because of “the attempts of communication that occurred in this instance and the unproductive/accusatory comments from some parishioners.”

Policy will be modified to require officers to write down names and badge numbers upon request

The report also notes that although GPD officers are required to provide their names and badge numbers upon request, they are not required to write them down. This allegation was found to be a “policy failure”; the report notes, “A request to write this information down seems practical and should be in policy… GPD policy will be reviewed and modified to meet the expectations of providing information such as names and badge numbers in writing.”

Kennedy disciplined for Facebook post

The allegation that Kennedy violated GPD’s social media policies and the City’s Code of Conduct was sustained, with discipline consisting of written instruction and cautioning in the form of an Employee Notice, a 40-hour suspension without pay, and remedial training.

Additional Citizen Complaint from the pastor

On October 30, Chief Moya met with the pastor and church members in an attempt to address their concerns about the original investigation into the officers’ actions during the incident.

On November 12, Chief Moya met with the pastor for about four hours, updated him on the progress of the investigation, and explained the findings of the Internal Affairs report.

On December 11, the pastor filed a Citizen Complaint Form. The complaint stated that officers “raided his church to arrest a mental health patient that supposedly stole a pack of cigarettes from the Dollar General.” The pastor expressed “concern regarding the conduct of the GPD officers.”

The pastor’s specific concerns were:

• Lack of communication with church leadership before entering the church;
• Use of force inside the sanctuary;
• Disrespect toward church leaders and members during the incident, including a refusal to provide officers’ names;
• Dismissal of offers to assist from a mental health professional and a law enforcement professional.

The pastor stated that he “wishes to emphasize he respects and supports law enforcement; however, the conduct displayed during this incident was disrespectful and undermined the congregation’s sense of security and dignity within their place of worship.” He also expressed concerns about violations of the church members’ First Amendment rights.

The investigative report was sent to the pastor in January, but he reportedly said it was unsatisfactory because none of the church members were interviewed; he said that not everything was captured on the officers’ body cameras and requested a new investigation. He offered new information that Gainey’s father had been injured during the incident, but the report notes that repeated attempts to schedule an interview about this new information with Gainey’s father were unsuccessful and calls from GPD were not returned.

In response to the allegation that officers raided the church to “arrest a mental health patient that supposedly stole a packet of cigarettes,” the report concludes that Gainey was charged with robbery, a felony, and “officers would be required to make a physical arrest even if it was determined [Gainey] met the criteria for an involuntary Baker Act at that time.”

Use-of-force allegation determined to be unfounded

The use-of-force allegation that officers tackled Gainey’s father in the sanctuary was determined to be unfounded. According to the report, officers separated Gainey’s father from Gainey by “manipulating [his] hands and/or arms. Neither [Gainey’s father] nor [Gainey] are tackled and none of the officers end up on the ground. [Gainey’s father] is seen standing in the sanctuary next to officers seconds before officers begin escorting [Gainey] toward the foyer of the church.”

The report notes that the Lieutenant returned to the church on the day of the incident and met with the pastor and church members; Chief Moya and GPD Command Staff met with the pastor and church members at the church on October 30; and Chief Moya discussed the incident with the pastor on November 12; but Gainey’s father’s injury was never mentioned until the complaint was filed on December 11.

Regarding the allegation that officers were disrespectful to church members, the report notes that officers were in the process of making a lawful arrest while surrounded by “a crowd that was not following orders to back up.” The report also notes that the second Sergeant had multiple conversations with church members to try to explain the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The allegation that officers refused to provide their names was determined to be unfounded, based on Kennedy’s body camera video.

The report concludes that officers were not required to accept offers to assist from church members because at the time officers entered the church, they did not know the identity of the suspect, his mental status, his relationship to the church, his relationships with church members, or the occupations of the church members. The report concludes that “it would not be practical to defer the… arrest of a suspect who has already displayed erratic/resistive behavior to parishioners of unknown skills/occupations.”

The report concludes that officers did not violate the church members’ First Amendment rights because their actions were based on a concern for the safety of the church members while pursuing an aggressive subject: “This was not a planned event that targeted the church, church leadership, parishioners that were in attendance, or the worship service.”