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Breonna Taylor: Louisville To Pay The Family $12m Over Police Shooting

Source: BBC

Authorities in Louisville, Kentucky have agreed to pay $12m (£9.3m) to the family of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was killed in her home by police.

Taylor was 26 when she was shot at least five times and killed on 13 March during a mistaken drugs raid.

Her name has featured prominently in anti- racism protests in recent months.

Lonita Baker, a legal counselor for Taylor’s family, called the settlement only one “layer” in the effort to seek justice and praised new police reforms.

“Justice for Breonna is multi-layered,” said Ms. Cook at a press conference on Tuesday alongside Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer.

She called the agreement “tremendous, yet just a bit” of what the family seeks after, including the capture of the officials involved in her death.

“Today what we did here was to do what we could do to bring a tad of police change and it’s only a beginning,” proceeded with Ms. Baker.

“In any case, we completed the main mile in the long distance race and we have much more miles to go to until we accomplish and cross that end line.”

The settlement includes a series of police reforms in the city, including a requirement that all search warrants be approved by a senior officer and giving a housing credit to officers who move to low-income neighbourhoods they patrol in the city.

In a short statement, Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer called for criminal charges against the officers and asked people to continue to say her girl’s name publicly in advocacy for police reforms.

The settlement is the largest financial sum paid in a police offense case in the city’s history, as per the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Taylor’s killing was propelled into the spotlight once again with the death George Floyd, an African-American man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May.

Floyd’s demise started worldwide anti- racism protests and brought renewed focus on police brutality.

Source: BBC.COM

What Happened To Breonna Taylor?

Shortly after midnight on 13 March, three officers entered Taylor’s apartment by executing a no-knock search warrant – a court document that authorises police to enter a home without warning.

Taylor and her partner, Kenneth Walker, were reportedly asleep as the commotion started.

The officials traded fire with Mr. Walker, a licensed weapon owner who called 911 in the belief that the drug raid was a burglary. The officials – who discharged in excess of 25 projectiles – said they returned shoot after one official was shot and wounded.

During the exchange, Taylor, an emergency clinical technician, was shot eight times and later died.

No drugs were found on the property.

The lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family accuses the officers of battery, wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence. It also says the officers were not looking for her or her partner, but for an unrelated suspect who did not live in the complex.

Her family has also accused police of leading the raid as a plot to gentrify her neighbourhood. The city’s mayor dismissed the allegation as “outrageous” and “without foundation or supporting facts”.

One of the officers involved with the raid, Brett Hankison, was fired in June. The other two – Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove – were placed on administrative leave.

The city’s police chief was also fired in June after a separate police shooting.

A grand jury could soon choose whether criminal accusations should be filed against any of the officers.

Until Freedom, a social equity association that has held rallies for Taylor released a statement saying: “No amount of money will bring back Breonna Taylor.”

“True justice isn’t served with cash settlements,” the group added. “We need those involved in her murder to be arrested and charged. We need responsibility. We need justice.”

Earlier this year, Louisville’s city council voted unanimously in favor of banning no-knock warrants. Comparative enactment that would boycott the warrants cross country was presented in the US Congress.

This article is originally posted on BBC

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