The City of Louisville agrees to settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Breonna Taylor
A magazine rack in Louisville, KY proudly displays the latest edition of Louisville Magazine featuring Breonna Taylor as a settlement in the case was announced this week (Sep 16, 2020).
BY VIVIAN CANIGLIA
While investigations by Louisville, Kentucky’s Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the F.B.I are still underway, the city has agreed to a settlement with the family of Breonna Taylor. The settlement is estimated at around $12 million and includes over a dozen police reforms to prevent future harm. Reforms include receiving permission from a commanding officer to perform a search warrant.
On March 13th, Breonna Taylor, a Black first responder, was killed in her apartment while police executed a no-knock warrant. Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker were startled by a loud banging in the middle of the night. Walker yelled and questioned who was at the door, to which he states there was no response. The officers broke down the front door of the apartment and Walker then fired one gunshot. The officers responded with firing rounds into the room. Taylor was injured and laying on the ground for around 20 minutes before medical respondents arrived on the scene, at which point Taylor was pronounced dead.
The search warrant came from an investigation into two men selling drugs who did not live near Taylor’s home. Recent information cited by the Taylor family explains that Taylor’s shooting was connected to a mass operation to gentrify part of western Louisville, the predominantly Black community of the city. Louisville newspaper, Courier-Journal states,
“Lawyers for Taylor's family allege in court documents filed - Sunday that a police squad — named Place-Based Investigations — had "deliberately misled" narcotics detectives to target a home - leading them to believe they were after some of the city's largest violent crime and drug rings” (Bailey and Duvall, 2020).
The documents explain that the city has a multi-million dollar project with Vision Russel development that would develop most of the west area. The Place-Based Investigations Unit’s use of the narcotics detectives gives evidence that the search-warrant likely was part of a larger goal to remove renters and home-owners from the area in an expedited process for development purposes.
The Taylor family lawyer, Ben Crump, explained the settlement is a small guarantee of some justice for Breonna and the reforms ensure that her life is not swept under the rug. Since the event, one of the officers, Hankinson, was fired and the two others, Mattingly and Cosgrove are on administrative reassignment. Kentucky’s Attorney General and the F.B.I are still investigating and could release an announcement as early as this week related to charges.
For more information:
NPR All Things Considered- City Of Louisville To Pay Settlement To Breonna Taylor's Family