Relatives of Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in a police shooting in her own home, on Tuesday announced that they have settled their wrongful death suit with the US city of Louisville for US$12 million, as well as promises of local law enforcement reforms.
The civil settlement was substantial and relatively quick, reflecting the public pressure and emotion surrounding the case of the 26-year-old, which became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.
After Taylor’s death on March 13, another black person, George Floyd, died on May 25 in Minneapolis while a police officer knelt on his neck, sparking protests across the country against racism and police brutality.
Taylor family attorney Ben Crump called the US$12 million settlement “historic,” but said the “comprehensive reform” plan was “equally important.”
Authorities in Louisville and the state of Kentucky pledged to implement measures that might head off incidents similar to the botched raid in which Taylor was killed.
Those include more oversight from commanding officers about search warrants, the hiring of a team of social workers and encouraging officers to do community service.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said that the city “is not waiting to move ahead with needed reforming to prevent the tragedy like this from ever happening again.”
Taylor, an emergency medical technician (EMT) was killed when three plainclothes police officers executing a “no knock” search warrant burst into her apartment late at night.
Taylor’s boyfriend, who was in bed with her, grabbed a gun and exchanged fire with the officers.
He later said he thought they were criminals.
The officers, who had not activated their body cameras as required, shot Taylor eight times, killing her. A police sergeant was also wounded.
The agreement signals an end to the civil proceedings, but not to the criminal investigation, which has yet to lead to any charges, six months after Taylor’s death.
The three said they had announced themselves before entering. They later filed an after-action report that was found to be rife with errors.
The raid was carried out simultaneously with a handful of others targeting Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, an alleged drug dealer, but Taylor had broken up with him months before.
“As significant as today is, it’s only the beginning of getting full justice for Breonna,” her mother, Tamika Palmer, said. “It’s time to move forward with the criminal charges.”
Taylor’s family in April filed a civil complaint seeking redress, claiming that the search warrant was in error, and that the officers had fired blindly and without due diligence.
One of the three officers, Brett Hankison, has since been fired, and the other two were suspended. The city has also banned “no knock” warrants.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese