Breonna Taylor's Death

Breonna Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was specializing in medicine was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020. Breonna Taylor, a black medical worker was shot and killed by Louisville police officers in March during a botched raid on her apartment. shortly after midnight on March 13, Louisville police officers executing a search warrant used a battering ram to enter the apartment of 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. Breonna had severed ties with the man who was doing this. Ms. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, 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 Sergeant Mattingly in a thigh. The police responded by firing several shots, hitting Breonna five times. he officers pleaded not guilty. No charges were announced against the other two officers who fired shots, and no one was charged for causing Ms. Taylor’s death. Brett Hankison, a detective at the time, fired into the sliding glass patio door and window of Ms. Taylor’s apartment, both of which were covered with blinds, in violation of a department policy that requires officers to have a line of sight.

He is the only one of the three officers who was dismissed from the force, with a termination letter stating that he showed “an extreme indifference to the value of human life.” Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency on September 22 in anticipation of possible “civil unrest” and ordered a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. for the next three nights. The city’s police chief, Robert J. Schroeder, also placed barricades and city vehicles downtown to restrict movement in the area and said he would not allow officers to request time off.

The Louisville Metro Police Department was also grappling with an email sent to officers on that week by a sergeant who fired his gun and was shot during the raid of Ms Taylor’s apartment. “I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night,” Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who is on administrative leave, wrote in the email, which he sent to fellow officers at 2:06 a.m. and which was later posted online. Kent Wicker, a lawyer for Sergeant Mattingly, confirmed the email was genuine. During the raid, Sergeant Mattingly was shot once in the leg by Taylor’s boyfriend as the sergeant entered the apartment. He later said in a statement to investigators that he had fired off at least six rounds in response.

In the email to his colleagues, Sergeant Mattingly railed against the Police Department’s command staff, the mayor and the F.B.I. and said: good guys are demonized, and criminals are canonized. ”For months, Ms. Taylor’s family has pleaded for justice, pushing for criminal charges against the officers. Louisville officials agreed to pay 12 million dollars for a wrongful-death lawsuit. Critics still state it to be unfair since for George's case the officers were immediately fired and charged. “At this point, t’s bigger than Breonna, it’s bigger than just Black Lives,” Ms. Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said. “We’ve got to figure out how to fix the city, how to heal from here.”

There have been multiple protests against the police since there has been no justice except for the fine on the officers.