LOUISVILLE: The city of US will pay $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor and reform police practices as part of a settlement months after Taylor’s slaying by police suspecting that Taylor’s flat was being used to receive drugs by a gang based at a different address 10 miles (16km) away. One of the suspects was an ex-boyfriend of Taylor.
“I cannot begin to imagine Ms. Palmer’s pain, and I am deeply, deeply sorry for Breonna’s death,” an official said, referring to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer. The lawsuit filed in April by Palmer, said that the police used unclear information when they obtained a “no-knock” warrant to enter the 26-year-old woman’s apartment in March. Taylor and her boyfriend were roused from bed by police, and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, has said he fired once at the officers thinking it was an intruder. Investigators say police were returning fire when they shot Taylor several times. No drugs were found at her home.
Palmer has said she is trying to be patient about the results of the criminal investigation and the long wait, which is now six months since her daughter’s death. In the time since Taylor’s shooting, her death — along with George Floyd and others — has become a cry for protesters seeking a reckoning on racial justice and police reform. High-profile celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and LeBron James have called for the officers to be charged in Taylor’s death.
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