Tomorrow (June 5) marks what would have been the 27th birthday celebration for Breonna Taylor. While her loved ones will continue to celebrate her life even though she is no longer with them, activists are using the day as a launching pad to call for justice. On March 13, Breonna Taylor, an EMT, and her live-in boyfriend Kenneth Walker were asleep in bed not long after midnight. The Louisville Police Department sent their plainclothes officers to issue a “no-knock” search warrant—a warrant where they didn’t have to announce who they were before invading the apartment.
Police claimed they were investigating Jamarcus Glover, a man they already had in custody, for suspicions of running a drug house that was 10 miles away from where Breonna lived. Because Glover and Breonna knew each other and they’d been seen interacting with one another, police decided to raid her home. According to Kenneth Walker, he heard someone in the home reached for his firearm that he had a license to carry and fired a shot. He hit the officer in the leg, but again, Kenneth believed the officers were intruders in the middle of a home invasion.
The officers returned fire with a barrage of at least 20 bullets. Investigators believe the officers just fired blindly without aim. Breonna was hit eight times and died at the scene. After searching the home, no drugs were found. Kenneth was arrested and charged with first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer because the officers on the scene were adamant that they announced themselves before entering. Charges against Walker were later dropped.
Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove were the officers involved in the shooting, and now a woman named Emily Terry has come forward with a story about Hankison’s behavior during her random interaction with the officer. According to Emily, she was drunk and walking home from a bar when a police officer in a patrol car pulled alongside her and asked if she needed a ride home.
“I thought to myself, ‘Wow. That is so nice of him.’ And willingly got in. He began making sexual advances towards me; rubbing my thigh, kissing my forehead, and calling me ‘baby’. Mortified, I did not move.” Her friend helped her report the incident, but nothing came of it. “He has had multiple sexual assault allegations, and was in a federal lawsuit over planting narcotics on a black man to arrest him. Not all cops are bad, but this one is. Right now, Mr. Hankison is walking free.” Read her message in full below.
