A year after the death of Breonna Taylor, a young black woman shot dead in her apartment by Louisville police officers, calls for justice and to reform the American police resounded, Saturday, March 13, in the United States.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Louisville, Kentucky (center-east), at the call of his relatives to mark the first anniversary. “We have not finished, we must continue to move forward”, launched them the companion of the young woman Kenneth Walker, who witnessed the tragedy.
In the procession was Camille Bascus, a 50-year-old African-American who came from Atlanta on purpose. “To represent those who no longer have a voice because their heart has stopped beating”. “It could have been me, it could have been anyone in my family”, she told Agence France-Presse (AFP), her voice choked with emotion. “It’s been a year, and justice has still not been served”, she regretted.
On March 13, 2020, police raided the home of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old caregiver, in the middle of the night as part of a drug trafficking investigation targeting her former boyfriend. His new friend Kenneth Walker believed they were burglars and fired a legally owned gun. Three officers retaliated and Breonna Taylor was shot around 20 times. The police were provided with a warrant said “No knock”, allowing them to break down the door without warning. They claim to have announced themselves all the same, which Mr. Walker disputes.
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At the end of September, the Kentucky justice announced that they would not be prosecuted for the death of the young woman. Only one of them was charged with endangering M’s neighborsme Taylor, a decision judged “Insulting and scandalous” by his family.
The hopes of his relatives now lie in the federal justice which opened an investigation in May 2020. “Louisville FBI remains committed to bringing it to an appropriate conclusion”, assured his manager, Robert Brown, on Saturday, stating, in a press release, “Significant progress”.
For his part, Democratic President Joe Biden deplored a “Tragic death” and underlined the importance of a vast police reform project, passed in the House of Representatives but overdue in the Senate, where Republicans have a blocking minority. “We must keep up the pressure to pass this important police reform in Congress, I remain determined to sign it”, he tweeted.
To put an end to a family complaint to civil, the town hall of Louisville agreed to pay twelve million dollars to the family of Breonna Taylor and to initiate the first reforms of its police force.
