Photo by Fibonacci Blue via Flickr.
On March 13, 2020, Louisville police officers opened fire in the home of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, shooting and killing her.
Three plainclothes police officers had a no-knock warrant to search Taylor’s apartment that evening. When Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Glover, realized that the apartment was being invaded, he shot at the intruders in self-defense and the three officers shot back, killing Taylor.
The African American Policy Forum explains,
The intended suspect of the warrant, sought in connection with a drug investigation, had in fact been apprehended earlier that morning. No drugs were found at the apartment and Breonna was unarmed. The police initially attempted to depict Breonna as a “suspect.” Louisville has since passed “Breonna’s Law,” which bans no-knock warrants, and Congress has introduced legislation to prohibit such warrants at the federal level.
Breonna Taylor’s name became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter and police abolition movement during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a symbol of the AAPF’s #SayHerName campaign to raise awareness of Black women’s deaths by police.
Photo by Rick Obst via Flickr.
In the fall of 2020, a grand jury reviewed the case and voted on indictments presented to them by the Kentucky Attorney General, Daniel Cameron. There were no indictments for murder presented. One officer was indicted (but not convicted) for “wanton endangerment,” for shooting into the apartments next to Taylor’s residence. The officers who shot into Taylor’s apartment were not indicted and none were charged with Taylor’s death.
Since Taylor’s death, legislation known as “Breonna’s Law ” — effectively a ban on no-knock warrants — have increased. However, they are still widely used, for example in the police murder of Amir Locke in Minneapolis. (Read Breonna Taylor’s Killing Sparked Restrictions on No-Knock Warrants. But Experts Say Those Rules Don’t Actually Change Much in TIME.)
Read the transcript at PBS Newshour.
There are ongoing campaigns to honor Breonna Taylor and keep public attention on police brutality against Black women. Read about the commitment of the WNBA, The WNBA is determined to keep Saying Her Name: How the league is using this season to raise awareness of the fact that Black women are killed by police violence, too.
Mural by HIERO aka @hieroveiga and Thomas Evans aka @detour303 located at 2811 Walnut Street in the RiNo area of Denver, Colorado. Drone photo by James aka @urbanmuralhunter.
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