Breonna Taylor
When will state prosecutors in Kentucky make a decision about the shooting death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor? The office of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) is keeping mum, but officials are ramping up security at the federal courthouse in Louisville. The Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House announced on Friday that it will be closed all week, starting Monday, according to WLKY. The first floor windows were boarded up.
U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman also asked that the Department of Homeland Security give more protection to four federal buildings in downtown Louisville amid nearby protests for racial justice, according to The Louisville Courier Journal.
The Federal Protective Service, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, is sending more resources, but a spokesman downplayed the move.
“I can’t foretell the future, but we’re definitely not going to come in and be all kitted up in riot gear and propping up fences and shooting pepper balls in the air,” Rod Sperling told the outlet. “It’s to ensure the safety and security of federal property and personnel. That’s really it.”
Taylor was shot and killed March 13 when Louisville police executed a no-knock warrant at her apartment. Officers opened fire, they said, after Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker shot at them. But Walker said that he did not know it was the police who barged into the residence. The warrant was in connection to a drug case, but Taylor’s family said she was never involved in drugs, and prosecutors dropped an attempted murder case against Walker. Police found no drugs in the apartment.
Three officers were said to have opened fire: Sgt. Jon Mattingly (who Walker shot in the leg), Detective Myles Cosgrove, and fired Detective Brett Hankison. Then-Interim Police Chief Robert J. Schroeder accused Hankison of “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment.
Louisville announced a settlement with Taylor’s family on Tuesday. It involved a $12 million payout as well as police reforms.
[Image via office of attorney Ben Crump]