Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, has demanded a “thorough investigation” into the shooting death of EMT worker Breonna Taylor, 26, who was in bed asleep when police officers burst in the wrong home in the middle of the night.
According to the Louisville-based Courier-Journal, members of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department were executing a no-knock warrant on a suspected drug dealer on March 13, 2020. The problem is that they burst into the wrong home.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought someone was breaking into their apartment at 1 a.m. and fired off a shot with his own gun, hitting an officer in the leg. The officers immediately returned fire and fatally wounded Taylor in a fusillade of police bullets. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
The man the police were looking for reportedly lived in Taylor’s apartment complex, People magazine reports, but not in her apartment. In fact, the man police were looking for had just been arrested and taken into custody when the second crew of officers burst into Taylor’s apartment.
Taylor was shot eight times by police who fired off 20 total rounds in the mix-up. Moreover, Taylor’s address was not on the police search warrant, so the reason why they entered her home unannounced remains a mystery. And they are not talking.
“We have a current internal investigation going on as it relates to this case, as well as the lawsuit,” the LMPD department told People magazine, “therefore, it would be inappropriate for us to make any comments about it at this point.”
None of the officers has been charged in the wrongful shooting death of Taylor. But Taylor’s boyfriend, Walker, 27, who is a licensed gun owner with no criminal history, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder and first-degree assault charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Taylor’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of Louisville on April 27 on the grounds of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence.
This week, attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of slain Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery, also signed on to the legal team representing the surviving members of Taylor’s family.
Meanwhile, Fischer, the Louisville mayor, assures that Taylor’s case, which like Arbery’s has garnered national attention, is being thoroughly investigated.
A portion of this statement was inadvertently omitted by staff. Here is the full statement. pic.twitter.com/xoIzZZMh1B
— Greg Fischer (@GregFischerLou) May 12, 2020
