Breonna Taylor’s Mother Asks Department Of Justice To Investigate Police Who Killed Her Daughter

Two years after police shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her Louisville apartment, calls for authorities to file charges against the officers involved in her killing continue. Breonna’s mother Tamika Palmer met today with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. She and supporters delivered a petition with more than 10,000 signatures to the Department of Justice today.

At a news conference after the meeting, Tamika Palmer said, “I’m here at the Department of Justice asking them to do the right things. This is bigger than Breonna. If no one addresses this issue, they’ll keep kicking in our doors and murdering us.”

Taylor, who was a 26-year-old, became one of the more well-known faces of the social justice movement and the campaign against no-knock warrants. Taylor and her fiance Kenneth Walker were home when police charged through her front door with a no-knock warrant for a suspected drug dealer police alleged had once retrieved a package from Taylor’s home. She was shot several times while the suspect, who did not live in her building, had been arrested at a different location.

The officers involved in the case were fired but only one was charged. Earlier this month a jury acquitted Brett Hankison of any wrongdoing for wanton endangerment after he fired into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment during the botched raid. But there have been no charges filed in connection to the death of Taylor.

In February Minneapolis police shot and killed 22-year-old Amir Locke while executing a no-knock warrant at a home where Locke was staying.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said, “Nothing shocks me in America anymore when it comes to police violating the constitutional rights of people of color. However, I thought if there was one place that would learn from the history lesson of the tragic killing of Breonna Taylor, it would be the city of Minneapolis who had just went through the George Floyd ordeal.”

Calls for legislation prohibiting no-knock warrants were heard around the nation on the anniversary of Taylor’s death, representing a diverse coalition of Americans who remember the emergency medical technician and the circumstances that led to the fatal police shooting.

The Justice Department has not commented on the meeting.