The Family of a Louisville EMT filed a wrongful death suit against the Louisville Metro Police Department alleging that they shot her eight times causing her death. The LMPD says that the officers were executing a valid warrant searching for drugs when they busted in Breonna Taylor’s apartment at 1 a.m. on March 13, 2020.
The suit alleges that since the person the warrant listed had already been captured by the police, the warrant for Taylor should have been called off. When police entered, they were allegedly met with gunfire from Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker—who was not the man police were looking for—and they returned fire immediately killing Taylor and wounding Walker.
Police also maintain that their officers announced that they were police, and they had a warrant that allowed them to search Taylor’s house, car, and Taylor personally. They believed that the person named in the warrant was using Taylor’s apartment as a hiding place for drugs and as a listed home address for the dealer.
Charges Filed
Taylor’s family disagreed saying that the police never announced who they were, and they busted in Taylor’s home. Walker—who had a valid license to carry a firearm—returned fire defending him and Taylor from intruders.
Since the incident, police had filed charges against Walker for attempted second-degree murder and assaulting a police officer after a police sergeant was shot during the raid. The family responded with civil charges against officers Brett Hankison, Myles Cosgrove, and Jonathan Mattingly who was himself shot by Walker, allegedly.
If the civil suit prevails, then the family of Taylor will get unspecified compensation for her death at the hands of the police. In the current atmosphere, surrounding the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota police, a lawsuit like this can be potentially incendiary, and it leaves many politicians uneasy.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear released a statement saying: “The public reports concerning the death of Breonna Taylor are troubling. Her family and the public at large deserve the full facts regarding her death. The commonwealth’s attorney, the U.S. attorney and the Kentucky attorney general should carefully review the results of the initial investigation to ensure justice is done at a time when many are concerned that justice is not blind.”
