While the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May unleashed a wave of protests across the country, fury over the March 13 killing of Breonna Taylor, an African-American medical worker in Louisville, Ky., by the police also drove tense demonstrations in that city and beyond. Since the national demonstrations over police brutality and systemic racism began in late May, Louisville officials have banned the use of no-knock warrants, which allow the police to forcibly enter people’s homes to search them without warning, and, in late June, fired one of the officers involved in the shooting.
Over the last several months, Ms. Taylor’s family has pleaded for justice, pushing for criminal charges against the officers. Her case has drawn national attention from celebrities and athletes, who have participated in social media hashtag campaigns and dedicated their seasons to keeping a spotlight on her case even as other instances of police brutality spark protests. Still, critics say progress in the case has been slow, especially when compared with the Floyd case, where officers were swiftly fired and charged.
Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general, said on Aug. 30 that he had received a ballistics report, calling it a “critical piece” of the investigation but declining to share its findings.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations and Kentucky state authorities are both investigating the shooting. Still, the ballistics report, though an important step forward, does not signal that the investigation is close to being over, Mr. Cameron said.
“At this point it’s bigger than Breonna, it’s bigger than just Black Lives,” Ms. Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said this summer in beseeching the authorities for criminal charges. “We’ve got to figure out how to fix the city, how to heal from here.”
What happened in Louisville?
Shortly after midnight on March 13, Louisville police officers executing a search warrant used a battering ram to enter the apartment of Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician.
The police had been investigating two men who they believed were selling drugs out of a house that was far from Ms. Taylor’s home. But a judge had also signed a warrant allowing the police to search Ms. Taylor’s residence because the police said they believed that one of the men had used her apartment to receive packages. Ms. Taylor had been dating that man on and off for several years but had recently severed ties with him, according to her family’s lawyer.
Ms. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been in bed, but got up when they heard a loud banging at the door. Mr. Walker said he and Ms. Taylor both called out, asking who was at the door. Mr. Walker later told the police he feared it was Ms. Taylor’s ex-boyfriend trying to break in.
After the police broke the door off its hinges, Mr. Walker fired his gun once, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in a thigh. The police responded by firing several shots, striking Ms. Taylor five times. One of the three officers on the scene, Detective Brett Hankison, who has since been fired, shot 10 rounds blindly into the apartment.
Mr. Walker told investigators that Ms. Taylor coughed and struggled to breathe for at least five minutes after she was shot, according to The Louisville Courier Journal. An ambulance on standby outside the apartment had been told to leave about an hour before the raid, counter to standard practice. As officers called an ambulance back to the scene and struggled to render aid to their colleague, Ms. Taylor was not given any medical attention. It wasn’t until 12:47 a.m., around five minutes after the shooting, that emergency personnel realized that she was seriously wounded, after her boyfriend called 911.
“I don’t know what’s happening. Someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Mr. Walker said on a recorded call to 911. Ms. Taylor received no medical attention for more than 20 minutes after she was struck, The Courier Journal reported, citing dispatch logs.
The Jefferson County coroner told The Courier Journal that Ms. Taylor most likely died less than a minute after she was shot and could not have been saved. While the department had gotten court approval for a “no-knock” entry, the orders were changed before the raid to “knock and announce,” meaning that the police had to identify themselves. The officers have said they did announce themselves, but Mr. Walker said he did not hear anything.
No drugs were found in the apartment, a lawyer for Mr. Walker said. Jamarcus Glover, Ms. Taylor’s ex-boyfriend whose alleged packages led the police to her door that night, was arrested on Aug. 27 in possession of drugs, according to a charging document. He told The Courier Journal that Ms. Taylor had no involvement in the drug trade. “The police are trying to make it out to be my fault and turning the whole community out here, making it look like I brought this to Breonna’s door,” he said.
Ms. Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said her daughter had had big dreams and planned a lifelong career in health care after serving as an E.M.T. She was a better version of me,” said Ms. Palmer, a dialysis technician. “Full of life. Easy to love.”
“Breonna was a woman who was figuring everything out in her life, who had turned a corner,” said Sam Aguiar, a lawyer representing Ms. Taylor’s family. “Breonna was starting to live her best life.” Read full story here https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html