On Friday, March 13th, Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville police shortly after midnight while asleep in her bed. She was a 26 year old emergency medical technician.
After surveillance on her home for what police indicated was a strange package delivery, 3 detectives executed a no-knock warrant to Taylor’s home and burst in. Taylor lived in a neighborhood known for crime and drug activity in Louisville. Police suspected that drugs were being received at the residence. Sometime in January, police noticed that a “strange” USPS package had been delivered to Taylor’s home.
Bizarre? Right?
On the night of Taylor’s death, police used a battering ram to enter Taylor’s home sometime after midnight. At which point, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thinking it was a home invasion, retrieved his gun in self-defense.. The officers after being greeted with open fire shot at least 20 rounds back into the apartment, 8 of which hit Breonna. One of the officers was shot in the leg by Walker’s rounds. And although Walker was not injured, Breonna unfortunately was pronounced dead at the scene.
The weapon Kenneth Walker used was registered to him and because he assumed the intruders were breaking in, he exercised his second amendment right. No charges were filed against him that we know of and the officer he shot has since recovered. Although he was detained the night of the shooting, he was released. Apparently LMPD claimed it had something to do with Covid-19.
It was reported by Walker and neighbors that police did not announce themselves despite a police report claiming otherwise. Moments before the intrusion, Louisville police apprehended the actual suspects more than 10 miles away and with drugs on them no less. It was also noted that following the apprehension of the actual suspects, one of them, Marcus Glover had a prior relationship with Taylor. There has been no evidence linking her boyfriend Walker to the suspects in custody for which the police were originally looking for.
The officers pending investigation were suspended but were able to return to desk duty. As of today one of the officers, Brett Hankison has been fired. While some are inciting that this was race related, others are insisting it was not. In my opinion, this may or may not have been about race in most but it was sloppy and negligent. The officers did no further surveillance to check for hostages, civilians, etc. This is why some cops need to leave this work to real defectives and stop trying to play Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon. Even the most respected detectives with tenure should be held to a higher standard.
I think that the problem so many have with law enforcement is that they tend to over-police under-funded communities populated by poor people. I could go into the semantics of systemic racism or the lack of attention that black women get by the black lives matter movement but I’d be here all day.
So I will leave you with this… Breonna Taylor’s case much like Sandra Bland five years earlier is no less sad or infuriating.
Justice for all black and brown people should be just that… justice for all black and brown people despite gender. It’s so sad how many folks are now up in arms about racial issues and race baiting but yet despite everyone who knew about George Taylor, so many have no clue who Breonna Taylor was or how and why she died.
Until Next Time Kiddies,
Shalom
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