Breonna Taylor: outrage and anger against judicial decision

Again there are protests against racism and police violence. Two police officers were shot dead during an anti-racism protest in Louisville.

Two police officers sustained gunshot wounds during protests against police violence and racism in Louisville, Kentucky. The police chief of the metropolis announced this on Wednesday evening (local time). A suspect was arrested and both police officers are expected to survive the gunshot attack.

Thousands of people demonstrated in Louisville on Wednesday. There were confrontations with the police, several people were arrested, as TV pictures showed.

The protesters' outrage was sparked by a Kentucky Justice ruling that police officers would not be charged with fatal shooting of African American Breonna Taylor. Because of feared outbreaks of violence, the mayor imposed a state of emergency and a night curfew, which came into effect from 9 p.m. local time.

Demos across the country

Demonstrations against the judicial ruling on the Taylor case also took place in numerous other US cities, from Boston, New York and Washington on the east coast to Los Angeles on the west coast.Taylor was shot dead by white police officers in her own home in Louisville on March 13. Kentucky's Attorney General Daniel Cameron has now brought charges against one of the police officers involved - but not because of the fatal shots at the 26-year-old paramedic.

The charge against police officer Brett Hankison relates rather to his shooting in an apartment next to Taylor's - it is negligent endangerment of the lives of others. There were three people in this apartment at the time of the nightly police operation.

Breonna Taylor

Two other police officers who fired at the 26-year-old, however, were not indicted by the public prosecutor. Cameron said the two acted in self-defense, and thus lawful, after Taylor's boyfriend shot them.

The three plainclothes officers had stormed Taylor's apartment in a drug raid. Taylor's friend, who was in bed with the 26-year-old, believed he was robbed, fired a shot with his gun and injured an officer. The three police officers then fired their service weapons.

Hit by six bullets

Attorney General Cameron said Taylor, standing next to her boyfriend, was hit by six bullets, one of which was fatal. Apparently only the injured officer and the policeman standing next to him met the young woman, but not the now accused Hankison.

Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were asleep in their apartment when just before 1 a.m. on March 13 three plainclothes officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department arrived to execute a search warrant in a drug case.

The two believed their apartment was being broken into when police busted through the door, according to a lawsuit by Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer.

Walker called 911, grabbed a gun and fired, shooting an officer in the leg. He had a license to carry and kept firearms in the home, and Taylor was unarmed.

The lawsuit accuses the officers of "blindly firing" more than 20 shots into the apartment. Taylor, a former EMT worker, was shot six times and died. Walker, 27, was arrested and charged with assault and attempted murder on a police officer.

Taylor and Walker had no criminal history or drug convictions, and no drugs were found in the apartment during the raid, the suit states.

Nationwide protests against racism and excessive police violence have been going on in the US for months. They were triggered by the death of the African American George Floyd in a brutal police operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in late May. During the protests, Taylor's picture and her name were repeatedly shown. 

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