Shooting of Breonna Taylor
Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her apartment at Louisville, Kentucky, on March 13, 2020, when white plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations.[1]
A new New York Times examination of video footage from the scene, witness accounts, statements by the police officers and forensics reports showed that the raid was compromised by poor planning and reckless execution.
Anomallities occurred in this search warrant such as none of the police officers who raided Breonna Taylor’s home used body cameras, none of the neighborhood hear anything about the cops introducing themselves before force entering to the apartment contrary with police officer statement who said they already introduced before, SWAT was not included in the raid, also a key witness who changed his testimony.
Incident
Shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020, Louisville police officers executing a search warrant to enter the apartment of Ms. 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.[2]
Ms. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been in bedroom watching tv, but got up as they heard a loud banging at the door. Mr. Walker said he and Ms. Taylor both called out, asking who was at the door but none answered. Mr. Walker later told the police he feared it was Ms. Taylor’s ex-boyfriend trying to break in. No response from inside the apartment, the police broke the door, Mr. Walker fired his gun once, aiming low scared of killing people, end up striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in a thigh. Mattingly responded by firing 5 shots, striking Ms. Taylor five times. Almost at the same time Cosgrove moves in and fires blindly into the dark room until he's runs out of ammunition, in total 16 rounds. Mr. Hankison another police officer at the outside of the building aware of this shooting incident, decided to shot blindly into the apartment towards the window, 10 rounds. Police officers fired 32 bullets in total to Ms. Taylor apartment
This brutally shoot caused Ms. Taylor seriously wounded, shot 6 times in both sides of her body. Mr. Walker then called 911 said, “I don’t know what’s happening,” Mr. Walker said on a recorded call to 911. “Someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.” Ms. Taylor received no medical attention for more than 20 minutes after she was struck. An ambulance on standby outside the apartment had been told to leave about an hour before the raid, counter to standard practice.
The Louisville police say that they fired inside Ms. Taylor’s home only after they were first fired upon by Mr. Walker, Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend. They said that Mr. Walker wounded one of the officers, who was hit in the leg but was expected to make a full recovery. Mr. Walker was subsequently charged with attempted murder of a police officer, though the charge was dismissed in May.
The police also assert that they knocked several times and identified themselves as police officers with a warrant before entering the apartment. Mr. Walker has said he and Ms. Taylor heard aggressive banging at the door and asked who it was, but they did not hear an announcement that it was the police.
None of the police officers who raided Breonna Taylor’s home used body cameras, impeding the public from a full understanding of what happened. The New York Times’s visual investigation team built a 3-D model of the scene and pieced together critical sequences of events to show how poor planning and reckless execution work led to a fatal outcome.[3]
Later after shooting incident on SWAT team arrived at the scene and examine the room, looking for damage from the shooting and no drugs were found in the apartment.
Investigation
For months, Ms. Taylor’s family has pleaded for justice, pressing criminal charges against the other officers. Ms. Taylor’s case began to draw national attention in May 2020, and she has since been the center of campaigns from several celebrities and athletes, some of whom have dedicated their seasons to keeping a spotlight on her case. In September, Louisville officials agreed to pay $12 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Ms. Taylor’s mother and to institute reforms aimed at preventing future deaths by officers.
A grand jury in September indicted a former Louisville detective involved in the raid, Brett Hankison, for wanton endangerment of neighbors whose apartment was hit when he fired without a clear line of sight into the sliding glass patio door and window of Ms. Taylor’s apartment. He 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.
Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who shot Ms. Taylor, and Detective Joshua Jaynes, who prepared the search warrant for the raid, received letters of termination in late December 2020, according to lawyers representing the officers. Detectives Cosgrove and Jaynes were officially fired on January 5, according to The Louisville Courier-Journal.[2]
Public Reaction
External Link
Visual Investigation video at nytimes.com
References
- ↑ Shooting of Breonna Taylor. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Oppel Jr., Richard A. What to Know About Breonna Taylor’s Death. The New York Post. 6 January 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
- ↑ Browne, Malachy. How the Police Killed Breonna Taylor. The New York Post. 28 December 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
