Before March 13, 2020, a police raid on her apartment in Louisville, Ky., A woke up from her sleep and took her life, Breonna Taylor was planning her future.
“She wanted to be a nurse at the NICU,” Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, told Yahoo News. “But she was already working in two hospitals [as an ER technician], and she loved doing that. She was prepared that year to return to school and wanted to get a home and just work to have a family. “
A heart nourisher, said her mother, Taylor has always been helpful to others, even as a child. “She was just a mama bear,” said Palmer.
Now, after a year in which Taylor’s case helped spur a global movement against police brutality, prompting thousands to demonstrate on the streets of Louisville and beyond, Palmer says his daughter’s absence still seems surreal. “I can’t get used to Breonna not being here,” she said.
Taylor, 26, was shot dead by Louisville Metropolitan Police officers who were executing a search warrant at her apartment. Police shot Taylor after her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who was with her at the time, fired a warning shot at who he believed to be intruders, injuring a policeman in the leg, according to police and Walker’s interview with investigators afterwards. the incident.
None of the officers directly involved in the night shooting were criminally charged with Taylor’s death. The decision sparked outrage when it was announced last September by state attorney general Daniel Cameron, who faced intense scrutiny for his role in the investigation. The announcement also sparked more demonstrations in Louisville and other cities in the United States.
Cameron, a Republican and Kentucky’s first elected black attorney general, was accused of misrepresenting the conclusions of the grand jury convened to decide whether charges should be brought against the officers who shot Taylor’s apartment: the sergeant. Jonathan Mattingly and detectives Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison.
Cameron said Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in the shooting because they shot self-defense after Walker shot first. He indicated that the jury refused to proceed with the homicide charges against the police, deciding to indict Hankison on only three charges of danger. (The department fired Cosgrove and Hankison.)
But two members of the jury presented themselves anonymously, telling reporters in October that the jury never had the opportunity to deliberate on charges other than those against Hankison. They also said that the process appeared to be aimed at a specific outcome.
Cameron maintained his handling of the case, and Palmer sought out a new special prosecutor to present the evidence to another grand jury. In December, the Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council, which had the authority to appoint a new prosecutor, voted to refuse Palmer’s request.
Palmer told Yahoo News that he will continue to push for a new special prosecutor in Taylor’s case. “She didn’t have a fair chance,” said Palmer.
In Louisville, many residents continued to demand police accountability. LeAndrea McCampbell, 32, who protested for more than 100 days last year for Taylor, told Yahoo News that she is still speaking out and says that many people she knows in the community do not trust law enforcement.
“We don’t heal,” said McCampbell. “We have a mother who is still mourning her daughter, who has not received the justice she deserves. Nobody apologized. It’s still everything [about] placing the blame, because [Taylor] was associated with someone from your past. “
The 2020 police raid targeted Jamarcus Glover, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, in connection with a narcotics investigation. Another police officer involved in planning the operation, Detective Joshua Jaynes, obtained a search warrant from Taylor’s home based on speculation that Glover was receiving packages there. But an investigative report released by police in October revealed that Jaynes did not confirm this with the Post and indicates that the information he used to secure the warrant was misleading. The LMPD also fired Jaynes in early January. A search of Taylor’s apartment after the operation found no drugs.
The FBI continues to investigate Taylor’s death and is in contact with Palmer, Lonita Baker, Palmer’s lawyer, told Yahoo News. But little is known about the progress of the investigation. The FBI office in Louisville did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo News for this story.
“There is still a way for a prosecutor here to bring charges to a grand jury on Breonna’s behalf. This was not done, ”said Baker.
Until that happens, Palmer said, she will not stop defending her daughter. She still wants “real justice”.
“We are tired,” said Palmer, speaking for her and Taylor’s supporters. “But what else do you do now but fight back?”
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