Shooting of Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor was an emergency room technician from Louisville, Kentucky. As part of a drug investigation that did not include Taylor as a suspect, police conducted a no-knock raid at her apartment on March 13, 2020, during which they broke down her door with a battering ram and allegedly failed to identify themselves. Believing that his home was being broken into, her boyfriend shot a police officer. Police then opened fire on the apartment, killing Taylor, who was lying in her bed.

Soon after her death, Taylor, along with George Floyd and other victims of police brutality, became part of the focus of a series of protests against police violence. The protests, which lasted for months, involved an estimated 15–26 million participants, and took place in hundreds of cities and towns worldwide, demanded greater accountability for police officers and immediate reform. Taylor’s hometown quickly banned no-knock warrants, and legislation was introduced to Congress that would do the same.

Background

Breonna Taylor was born on June 5, 1993, in Michigan. Her parents were Tamika Palmer and Troy Herrod. Her sister Shanntellee McElwee was her only sibling. She graduated from Western High School in 2011. After this, she studied at the University of Kentucky and found work as an emergency room technician. She had planned to return to school at a later date, hoping to become a nurse.

In March 2020, police in her area were investigating narcotics distribution. At the time, Taylor was living with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, in Louisville, Kentucky. Neither Walker nor Taylor was the primary suspect of the narcotics investigation. Police efforts were focused on gathering information on two other individuals, Jamarcus Glover and Adrian Walker. After conducting video surveillance, officers came to believe that Glover was using Taylor’s home as a place to store illegal narcotics.

Louisville police officers were granted a controversial no-knock warrant by a judge, which allows police officers to enter a building without first alerting the people inside of their presence. They raided Taylor’s home just after midnight on March 13, 2020. Because the door was locked, police officers used a battering ram to enter the premises. Taylor and her boyfriend were asleep in their bed at the time.

Believing that their home had been broken into, Walker drew a firearm from the night stand and fired at the police officers, wounding one officer in the leg. Police immediately returned fire, discharging their weapons into the apartment. Though Walker was not hit, Taylor was killed. At the time of her death, Taylor had been lying in her bed. Walker then surrendered to police. Police officers subsequently searched the residence and found no evidence of illegal narcotics.

Overview

News of Breonna Taylor’s killing quickly spread across the United States, though it was initially overshadowed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Americans were already angered at the pervasive negative treatment of Black Americans by law enforcement agencies, and after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis in May, Taylor's death gained renewed attention. Soon after news of the shooting spread across the country, more details about the case began to emerge.

According to the police report, police clearly announced their presence after knocking several times. Only after such an announcement did they use a battering ram to break open the door. However, according to Walker, no such announcement was made at any point during the raid. Walker’s statements were corroborated in part by his 911 call during which he said that someone had broken into his home and shot his girlfriend. Neighbors also corroborated Walker’s story. Further inaccuracies were included in the initial report filed by the police officers involved in the incident, such as a claim that no one involved in the shooting had been harmed.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Walker was charged with attempted murder and first degree assault. Officers alleged in their report that they had clearly announced themselves before entering the residence, stating that Walker had discharged his firearm first. Walker was sent home from prison due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and then was later released from house arrest. He and his legal counsel sought the removal from his record of all criminal charges relating to the incident.

Taylor’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit on her behalf, alleging that the officers had acted inappropriately. The officers had arrived in unmarked vehicles in plain clothes, as is traditional for narcotics officers. However, the lawsuit alleged that the officers were not wearing body cameras and had not properly identified themselves and that Walker had acted reasonably while believing that unknown intruders were invading his home. Additionally, the lawsuit argued that police officers should never take actions that could result in the death of an innocent person while they are asleep.

Soon after the shooting occurred, the three officers who carried out the raid were placed on independent leave while the police conducted an independent investigation into the incident. The Louisville Metro Police Department found that some wrongdoing occurred and fired Brett Hankison, one of the three officers involved in the raid. Louisville mayor Greg Fischer stated that due to state law, he could not provide further details about how that decision was reached.

Taylor’s name became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and protests across the country and worldwide called for justice for Taylor and other victims of police violence. Huge crowds marched in US streets and other cities worldwide, demanding greater accountability for police officers and other measures to fight structural racism. Some states passed legislation making it easier to prosecute officers for police brutality and other unnecessarily violent actions. Additionally, Louisville’s city council voted unanimously to ban the practice of no-knock warrants, which allow police officers to suddenly enter a residence in a violent manner, often without identifying themselves as law enforcement. Similar legislation to ban the practice nationwide was introduced to Congress later in 2020.

The city of Louisville reached an agreement with Taylor's family in September 2020, paying a $12 million settlement to the family and introducing a police reform plan. Later that month, Hankison was indicted by a state grand jury on charges of wanton endangerment due to the fact that shots he fired during the raid hit a neighbor's apartment. However, no charges were filed over Taylor's death, sparking further protests; members of the grand jury later claimed they were not presented the opportunity to pursue homicide charges. The exact circumstances of the raid remained hotly debated as investigations continued to unfold. In December 2020 another officer involved in the raid, Myles Cosgrove, and the officer who initiated the search warrant, Joshua Jaynes, were notified that they were being fired; their termination was made official in January 2021.

In March 2021 Walker filed a federal lawsuit against the Louisville police department, alleging that his rights against unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution had been violated. Later that month all charges against Walker were permanently dismissed, though he was not granted full immunity from civil prosecution. A defamation suit filed against Walker by Jonathan Mattingly, the officer wounded in the raid, remained active. Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the launch of its own investigation into the shooting of Taylor. In April 2021 Kentucky governor Andy Beshear signed into state law a bipartisan bill creating a partial ban on no-knock warrants. That same month, the US Department of Justice launched an investigation into the policies and practices of the Louisville metro police and government, and Mattingly retired from the force.

While a federal judge's February 2022 ruling allowed Walker's lawsuit case to move forward, Hankison's trial also took place early that year. It had been delayed, like many other jury trials in the US, by the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, it was announced that the jury had reached a verdict of not guilty, acquitting him of the wanton endangerment charges against him. During the trial, he had testified on his own behalf, claiming that he had misunderstood what was occurring at the scene but had not intentionally committed any wrongdoing.

Four of the officers involved in the events surrounding the death of Taylor, including Hankison, were federally charged in August 2022 on a collection of offences that included violating Taylor's civil rights, unconstitutional use of force, unlawful conspiracy, and obstruction. Later that month, Kelly Goodlett, one of the four officers charged, plead guilty to both falsifying the search warrant used in the raid and covering up the aftermath by lying to investigators. In December 2022 Walker's lawsuit concluded with a $2 million settlement form the city of Louisville.

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