It was late at night on March 13th 2020 when three police officers claim they knocked on Breonna Taylor’s door in Louisville, Kentucky. Breonna, tired from a long day at work as an emergency room technician at the University of Louisville Health department, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were asleep and did not hear the knock. What they did hear was three Louisville police officers using a battering ram to break down the door in a forced entry to the apartment. Mr. Walker, thinking a robber was breaking in, reached for his gun and fired a single shot, hitting one of the officers in the leg. What happened next is absolute proof that the Louisville Police Department needs training and psychological evaluations for its officers!
All three officers opened fire, releasing a torrent of some 32 rounds of ammunition into the apartment, six of which hit Breonna Taylor who by this time was standing in the hallway. An ambulance that had been standing by, had been told to leave by the officers before they entered the apartment, and it was several minutes before another ambulance was even called, during which time Ms. Taylor was not given any medical attention for more than 20 minutes. By the time an ambulance did arrive, Breonna Taylor was dead.
The officers’ claims that they both knocked and vocally announced themselves before breaking in are questionable, to say the least. Out of 12 neighbors, including one who was outside smoking a cigarette at the time, only one says he heard the officers knock and his story has been inconsistent and therefore questionable. The warrant they were serving was for neither Ms. Taylor nor Mr. Walker, but rather was for an ex-boyfriend of Ms. Taylor’s, Jamarcus Glover, who in fact lived miles away. Can we say “incompetence”?
Here’s the most infuriating part, though … ONLY ONE of the officers was ever charged in the shooting, and he was NOT the one who actually shot Breonna Taylor!
The three officers who let loose 32 rounds into Ms. Taylor’s apartment are, left to right, Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove. It was Cosgrove whose shots killed Breonna Taylor, but he was not indicted, nor was Mattingly. Brett Hankison was the only one of the three to be indicted and that was only because he fired his weapon through a wall, into the adjoining apartment where a man, a pregnant woman and a 5-year-old boy were home. Hankison was indicted on three counts of ‘wanton endangerment’.
Yesterday, a jury found Hankison ‘not guilty’ on all three counts.
And so, once again, a Black person’s life has no value in the world of white men. Once again, being a police officer seems to render a person ‘above the law’. Once again, the courts have failed, the system of justice in the United States has proven incapable of administering justice. Now, let me ask you something here … do you think the outcome for the officers would have been different if the victim had been white and any or all of the officers had been Black?
Once again I cry tears of shame for this nation. Breonna Taylor … SAY HER NAME!!!!