Mom of black victim of police shooting calls for nonviolence

LOUISVILLE, KY. — Looking to defuse tensions in Louisville over the fatal shooting of a black woman by police who broke down her door, the victim’s mother on Friday called on protesters to continue demanding justice but to do it in “the right way without hurting each other.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear read the statement from Breonna Taylor’s mother hours after gunshots erupted, wounding at least seven people, during protests late Thursday outside City Hall. At least one person was in critical condition, Louisville Metro Police said early Friday.

“No officers discharged their service weapons,” and all seven people shot were civilians, police spokesman Sgt. Lamont Washington stated to The Associated Press.

In her statement, Tamika Palmer said her daughter — an emergency medical technician — devoted her life to others, and the “last thing she’d want right now is any more violence.”

“Please keep saying her name,” her statement said. “Please keep demanding justice and accountability, but let’s do it the right way without hurting each other. We can and we will make some real change here. Now is the time. Let’s make it happen, but safely.”

Beshear, speaking on CNN, said the protest started peacefully but some people later “instigated and caused some actions that turned it into something that it should not have been.”

Louisville’s mayor called for peace as he said two of the wounded from the gunfire in his city underwent surgery while five were in good condition.

“I feel the community’s frustration, the anger, the fear, but tonight’s violence and destruction is not the way to solve it,” Mayor Greg Fischer said in a video posted to Twitter.

Thursday night’s demonstration came as protesters across the country, in cities including Los Angeles, Denver, New York and Memphis, turned out in alliance with demonstrators in Minneapolis, where George Floyd became the latest high-profile black man to die in police custody.

The protests in Louisville quickly followed the release of a 911 call Taylor’s boyfriend made on March 13, moments after the 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door. No drugs were found in the home.

Around 500 to 600 demonstrators marched through the Kentucky city’s downtown streets.

MICHAEL CLEVENGER / COURIER JOURNAL VIA AP Organizers protect a Louisville, Ky., officer during a protest of police killing EMT Breonna Taylor, a black woman.