The city of Louisville has agreed to pay $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor and reform its police department in a wrongful death lawsuit settlement six months after the 26-year-old EMT worker was shot by police during a botched raid of her apartment.
The settlement was announced publicly Tuesday afternoon. It was the largest one ever paid by the city for a police misconduct case.
The previous high was $8.5 million for Edwin Chandler, who was exonerated in 2012 after spending nine years in prison for a murder he did not commit, WDRB News reported.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, alleged the police used flawed information when they obtained a “no-knock” narcotics warrant to enter her daughter’s apartment. Taylor, 26, was shot several times. The police found no drugs at her home.
The lawsuit accused three Louisville police officers of blindly firing into Taylor’s apartment. Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker, said he didn’t hear police announce themselves. Thinking he was guarding against an intruder, he fired a single shot that hit an officer in the leg.
The settlement will include reforms on how warrants are handled by police, LA Times reported.
The March 13 wrongful death shooting of the emergency medical technician, while she was at home in bed, triggered months of protests around the U.S. Six months later, criminal charges have yet to be filed against the police involved.
It’s a source of frustration on social media, where calls are ongoing for the officers to be charged, especially now that the family has settled.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
“Cool, now arrest the murderers,” Michael Johnson tweeted @ThatOneMichaelJ.
“This is not justice. This is bribery. Make arrests,” Exploding Tree Singh, MD
@LabyrinthWeaver tweeted.
“Whatever it is, it is not enough. They murdered her in her own bed although they had the suspect, her ex boyfriend, in custody at the time of the raid. They killed her because cops wanted to seize $14,000 in drug money he lied about her keeping,” KD@Fly_Sistah tweeted.
“I hope it came out of the police pensions vs. taxpayer dollars,” 37 Acorns
tweeted.
“There must be an admission of guilt in there for them to consider a settlement. If so, the officers responsible to to be arrested and tried. The world is watching,” Commander-In-Chief@Bright906 tweeted.
