Harris seeks probe into EMT’s death
Police with warrant shot Ky. woman in her home
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is demanding federal investigators examine the controversial shooting of EMT Breonna Taylor.
“I’m calling for the Department of Justice to investigate #BreonnaTaylor’s death,” Harris, a California Democrat, said in a tweet Wednesday. “Her family deserves answers.”
The former presidential candidate described Taylor as a young woman with a dream of becoming a nurse and how she was fatally shot by police while in her apartment.
Harris incorrectly stated on NBC News that Louisville police were “at the wrong place trying to serve a warrant.”
Louisville narcotics officers did have a warrant for Taylor’s address and to search her apartment on March 13. But the warrant shows that she was not the main target of the drug investigation and that no illegal narcotics were found inside the apartment.
Harris’ call for an outside agency to look into the case echoes local civil rights leaders who have said there needs to be an independent federal investigation. The Interdenominational Ministerial Coalition has also demanded creating a new civilian review board to oversee Louisville Metro Police.
The Louisville Metro Police investigation, records show, was centered around a “trap house” on Elliott Avenue more than 10 miles from Taylor’s apartment and two suspects police believed were selling drugs at the Russell neighborhood address.
Taylor’s shooting death has raised questions about why officers entered her home early March 13 and opened fire on her in her apartment.
Police say Taylor’s boyfriend,
Kenneth Walker, fired first, wounding an officer. Walker says he believed someone was breaking into the home and acted in self-defense.
Taylor, 26, was shot eight times by officers before being pronounced dead at the scene.
No body-camera footage is available because officers in the department’s Criminal Interdiction Division who conducted the search warrant do not wear cameras, police chief Steve Conrad previously said.
Attorneys, activists and family members have said that Taylor and Walker were not the main target of the search warrants police were executing that night, and demand answers as to why police were there.
The warrant executed just before 1 a.m. March 13, however, did include Taylor’s home. A judge signed off on a “no-knock” provision, meaning that police could enter her house without identifying themselves as members of law enforcement.
Just over 12 hours later, Taylor would be dead after what her attorneys called a
“botched” warrant execution.
Despite the warrant’s no-knock provision, police said officers “knocked on the door several times and announced their presence as police who were there with a search warrant.”
A lawsuit filed by Taylor’s family said multiple neighbors provided statements that police did not knock or identify themselves.
Walker, believing the apartment was being broken in to after being startled awake by police’s entry, fired a shot and struck an officer in the leg, his attorney has said. In return, police shot more than 20 rounds into the home.
So-called “no-knock” entry can be sought by Louisville police officers if there is reasonable suspicion that knocking would be dangerous, futile or inhibit the “effective investigation of the crime,” per the department’s standard operating procedures.
In this case, officers contended it was necessary because “these drug traffickers have a history of attempting to destroy evidence, have cameras on the location that compromise detectives once an approach to the dwelling is made, and have a history of fleeing from law enforcement.”
Taylor and her boyfriend had no criminal history or drug convictions.
Her address was listed in the warrant based on police’s belief that one of the narcotics investigation suspects, Jamarcus Glover, used her home to receive mail, keep drugs or stash money earned from the sale of drugs, records show.
Detective Joshua Jaynes wrote in an affidavit summarizing the investigation that led to the warrant that Glover walked into Taylor’s apartment one January afternoon and left with a “suspected USPS package in his right hand,” then got into his car and drove to a “known drug house.” Jaynes verified through a U.S. postal inspector, according to the affidavit, that Glover had been receiving packages at her address.
In addition to Taylor’s home, police were authorized to search the two main suspects, Glover and Adrian Orlandes Walker, along with two vehicles connected to them. Kenneth Walker was not listed on the warrant.