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Because Breonna Taylor was shot by an American police officer in a raid on her own bed, she now has to go to court. However, the nature of the charges led to further angry protests, in which two policemen were shot.
Two police officers were shot in Louisville during protests against a controversial court decision following the death of black American Breonna Taylor. The injuries are not life-threatening, Acting Police Chief Robert Schroeder told reporters late at night in the US state city of Kentucky. A suspect has been arrested. The two injured policemen would be treated at the hospital.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron had previously announced that none of the three police officers involved in the operation would be directly charged with Taylor’s death in March. One of the police officers is charged, but is said to have endangered other residents of the apartment building. Investigators concluded that the other two officers were defending themselves, Cameron said.
Taylor shot dead in her own apartment
Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in her own apartment during the night police operation in March. Like the African American George Floyd, assassinated in Minneapolis in late May, he became a symbol of the movement against racism and police violence.
Police clash with protesters in Louisville on Wednesday. Several protesters were arrested. Fearing riots, authorities had already ordered the National Guard to Louisville as a precautionary measure and had put up barriers. At 9:00 pm (local time / 3:00 am CEST), a nightly curfew went into effect. Protests also broke out in cities like New York, Washington, and Atlanta.
Taylor’s friend is said to have shot first
Police had arrived at Taylor’s apartment in the middle of the night with a search warrant. According to the investigation, they knocked on the door, identifying themselves as policemen. There’s a witness to that, Cameron said. When they got no response, they broke down the door. They saw a man and a woman in the apartment. The man, a friend of Taylor’s, was the first to shoot and wounded one of the officers in the leg. Police then opened fire and fired 32 shots, Cameron said.
They would have met Breonna Taylor unarmed at least five times, but not her boyfriend. Of the bullets that hit the 26-year-old paramedic, one was fatal. One of the policemen fired ten shots from outside the apartment. Some of his bullets hit neighboring apartments. The officer is charged with “intentionally endangering” in three cases. He faces up to five years in prison three times for this.
The city and the family agree on a settlement payment
Questions about the case remain unanswered. The circumstances surrounding the search warrant issue are still being investigated. It was a person who was not in the apartment. Taylor’s friend also said he heard a knock on the door, but not that it was the police. That is why he thought the policemen were thieves.
The city of Louisville had reached an unusually high settlement payment of $ 12 million in a civil case with Taylor’s family last week. At the same time, he promised reforms in the police force. He understands the pain of Taylor’s death, said the attorney general, who is also black. “But criminal laws are not designed to deal with all the pain and loss.” He called for protests only peacefully.
US President Donald Trump evaded questions about his comment on the case at a press conference at the White House that night. Instead, he read Minister Cameron’s statement, saying he was doing a “fantastic job.” Trump also welcomed the deployment of the National Guard. Trump is repeatedly accused of failing to clearly condemn police violence against blacks.
