Breonna Taylor protests

Breonna Taylor protests
Part of the United States racial unrest and the Black Lives Matter movement
Memorial for Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky
DateMay 26, 2020 – August 4, 2022
(2 years, 2 months, 1 week and 2 days)
Location
United States
Caused by
MethodsProtests, demonstrations, civil disobedience, online activism

The Breonna Taylor protests were a series of police brutality protests surrounding the killing of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was a 26-year-old African-American woman who was fatally shot by plainclothes officers of the Louisville Metro Police Department on March 13, 2020. Police were initially given "no-knock" search warrant, but orders were changed to "knock and announce" before the raid. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was inside the apartment with her during the raid, said he thought the officers were intruders. He fired one shot, hitting officer Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return, killing Taylor.[1]

For months after the shooting, there were demands from Taylor's family, the family's attorneys, members of the local community, and protesters worldwide that the officers involved in the shooting be fired and criminally charged.[2][3] On September 23, 2020, a state grand jury indicted Brett Hankison, one of the three officers who shot during the incident, on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for endangering Taylor's neighbors with his shots. He was later acquitted. On August 4, 2022, Hankison and three other officers were federally charged with violating Taylor's civil rights, unlawful conspiracy, obstruction and unconstitutional use of force.[4]

  1. ^ Oppel, Richard A. Jr. (May 30, 2020). "Here's What You Need to Know About Breonna Taylor's Death". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on June 1, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020. (From the Internet Archive index for the page, compare captures for August 30, 2020, and September 2, 2020, to see the change in coverage concerning the warrant.)
  2. ^ Sanchez, Ray; Joseph, Elizabeth (June 19, 2020). "Louisville, Kentucky, seeks to fire police officer in shooting of Breonna Taylor". CNN. Archived from the original on June 20, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  3. ^ Costello, Darcy (June 19, 2020). "Louisville police is firing officer Brett Hankison involved in Breonna Taylor shooting". USA Today. Gannett. ISSN 0734-7456. Archived from the original on June 20, 2020.
  4. ^ "Four current, former Louisville police officers federally charged in Breonna Taylor's death". CNN. August 4, 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2024.