Breonna Taylor was a 26-year-old aspiring nurse who was gunned down by Louisville police after they stormed her home during a botched raid– firing more than 20 rounds into her apartment.
Police were looking for a suspect already in custody who did not live at the victim’s apartment, according to a lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family. Officers went to the wrong complex, wrong unit and shot Breonna 8 times, MSN reports.
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Taylor was a certified EMT working at two local hospitals, working on the frontline during the coronavirus pandemic. The LMPD (Louisville Metro Police officers) allegedly conducted an improper raid when they burst in her home without announcing their presence and fired at least 22 times, with bullets going into neighboring apartments, and “it was incredible that Mrs. Taylor was the only one killed,” said Rob Eggert, defense attorney for Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker.
Walker, a licensed gun owner, was inside the apartment at the time and he shot at officers when they attempted to enter without announcing themselves, according to the lawsuit. He was not injured in the incident, but was arrested and has since been released. Walker faces charges of first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer.
The union representing the officers called a local judge’s decision to release him “a slap in the face to everyone wearing a badge.”
None of the officers involved have been charged in connection with the shooting.
“Not one person has talked to me. Not one person has explained anything to me,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said in an interview. “I want justice for her. I want them to say her name. There’s no reason Breonna should be dead at all.”
The family’s lawsuit, filed April 27, accuses the officers of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence. They have hired famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is also representing the family of Ahmaud Arbery.
“They’re killing our sisters just like they’re killing our brothers, but for whatever reason, we have not given our sisters the same attention that we have given to Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Stephon Clark, Terence Crutcher, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Laquan McDonald,” Crump said, via wbrd.com.
“Breonna’s name should be known by everybody in America who said those other names, because she was in her own home, doing absolutely nothing wrong.”
In an interview with the 19th, Palmer said on the night of the incident, she received a call from her daughter’s boyfriend, saying someone was trying to break into the couple’s apartment: “I think they shot Breonna,” Walker told her.
“She was an essential worker. She had to go to work,” Palmer said. “She didn’t have a problem with that. … To not be able to sleep in her own bed without someone busting down her door and taking her life. … I was just like, ‘Make sure you wash your hands!’ ”
Taylor’s sister, Ju’Niyah Palmer, wants people to know her sister was a victim and not a criminal or a suspect in a crime, nor did she have a criminal record.
Ju’Niyah is using social media to bring awareness to the case, using the hashtag #JusticeForBre.
“I’m just getting awareness for my sister, for people to know who she is, what her name is,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chief Steve Conrad has also criticized the release of Walker, saying in an email: “I certainly understand the need to make sure we are releasing those people who don’t pose a risk to our community from the jail, especially as we face the outbreak of COVID-19. However, it’s hard for me to see how a man accused of shooting a police officer falls into that low-risk category and I am very frustrated by Mr. Walker’s release to home incarceration.”
According to reports, prosecutors say Eggert’s “version” of events are “irrelevant.”
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