The world is set to pause Monday to commemorate the life of Breonna Taylor three years after officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) killed her by firing blindly into her home on March 13, 2020.
Taylor’s death anniversary will be solemnly observed five days after the Justice Department (DOJ) released a scathing 90-page report detailing the grim and discriminatory law enforcement tactics that have long plagued LMPD. The two-year investigation was spawned by Taylor’s fatal shooting.
Investigators say LMPD exercised a shocking level of misconduct throughout the years. Officers were found guilty of using excessive force and drawing up invalid no-knock warrants to conduct searches. They were also accused of conducting “unlawful stops” and of “harassing people during street sweeps,” the New York Times noted.
A large majority of the department’s discriminatory practices were used against Black people and individuals with behavioral health problems, the report stated.
Shortly after the findings were revealed, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued a statement, noting how the police department had “undermined its public safety mission and strained its relationship with the community it is meant to protect and serve.
“This conduct is unacceptable. It is heartbreaking,” he added.
A bogus no-knock warrant was used during the tragic shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Taylor was just 26 years old when seven Louisville police officers stormed into her apartment and fired off 32 rounds, at least six of which struck and fatally wounded her.
In August 2022, four of the officers involved in the fatal shooting were federally charged with violating Taylor’s civil rights during the botched raid. Kentucky detectives Kelly Goodlett and Joshua Jaynes were charged with falsifying the affidavit used to conduct the reckless search. In a separate indictment, Brett Hankison was charged with using excessive force while…
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