More than two years after the tragedy and while local justice passed the towel, the Ministry of Justice accused four US police officers on Thursday for their role in the death of a young black woman, Breonna Taylor, who became a Black Lives movement Matter. icon.
One of the agents is accused of “excessive use of force”, the other three of having “falsified” the search warrant at the origin of the operation, Minister Merrick Garland said during a press conference.
“I’ve been waiting for this for 874 days,” replied the girl’s mother, Tamika Palmer. “But it still hurts,” she added on camera, blaming local authorities for “not doing the right thing.”
In the shadow of George Floyd
On March 13, 2020, three police officers in Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, broke into the home of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in the middle of the night as part of a drug trafficking investigation targeting her ex-boyfriend. Her new partner, Kenneth Walker, believed they were robbers and fired a legally owned weapon. Police responded and Breonna Taylor took around 20 bullets.
The officers were armed with a so-called “no knock” order, which authorized them to break down the door without warning. They claim to have advertised anyway, which Kenneth Walker disputes.
The death of Breonna Taylor had not attracted much attention until the death of the African-American George Floyd, suffocated by a white police officer in May 2020. The name of the young woman had been chanted then in all the anti-racist protests of the summer.
A mandate that raises questions
Despite the anger, local prosecutors had charged a single police officer in September 2020, not for the death of Breonna Taylor but for having “endangered” her neighbor by discharging her weapon through a partition. Louisville was then on fire. The acquittal last March of this policeman, Brett Hankison, 46, had revived the feeling of injustice in anti-racist circles and among the city’s black community.
Federal justice finally decided to prosecute him for “excessive use of force.” “He fired ten shots through a window and a French window covered with blackout curtains,” the justice minister justified.
Three of his former teammates who did not participate in the raid, Joshua Jaynes, Kyle Meany and Kelly Goodlett, are accused of having lied about the search warrant at the origin of the tragedy.
“The defendants knew that the warrant contained false and misleading information, and that other (information) had been omitted,” Merrick Garland explained. They “knew it could create a dangerous situation and we assert that these illegal acts resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death,” he added.
The order claimed that the police had verified that Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend had received packages at the latter’s home. “Messrs. Jaynes and Goodlett knew that was not true,” the minister said. According to him, the agents then “took steps to cover up her misdeeds” and, in particular, lied to the FBI.
“It’s a big step towards justice”
The announcement of these demands was well received by those close to Breonna Taylor, who demanded the immediate dismissal of the officers who remain in office.
“This is a huge step toward justice,” said famed attorney Ben Crump, who represents this family and many Black victims of police violence. “It is time for the police officers involved to stop covering up and accept responsibility for the death of this innocent young black woman,” he added.
To defuse the climate and end a civil lawsuit, the Louisville City Council had agreed to pay Breonna Taylor’s family $12 million and initiate initial reforms of its police force. The practices of its law enforcement agencies are also under investigation by the federal government.
Source: BFM TV
