Breonna Taylor’s Legal Team Accuses Louisville Of Covering Up Taylor’s Murder, Demands End To Plainclothes Officers

The legal team for Breonna Taylor is accusing Louisville officials of covering up her killing.

On March 13, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, a medical technician, was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department officers who were serving a no-knock warrant in connection to a narcotics investigation, according to The Courier-Journal. The officers were dressed in plain, everyday clothes, and claim that they knocked and announced themselves when they entered Taylor’s South End apartment. Thinking the police were burglars, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, responded by shooting one of the officers in the leg. Walker said he and Taylor didn’t hear the officers announce their presence. Police ended up firing into Taylor eight times after Walker fired off his one shot. The officers involved in the incident were  Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove; they all have been placed on administrative reassignment while the murder is investigated.

The legal team and the family of Taylor are saying details about the woman’s murder are being covered up by public officials, including the Mayor of Louisville #GregFischer. Taylor’s lawyers say they specifically requested pertinent documents pertaining to her murder, including an official autopsy report, personnel files of the officers who were involved as well as the Mayor’s internal communications regarding the matter. As of Monday, Taylor’s team says none of the information they asked for has been delivered, and it’s been a month since the documents were requested. Because of the city’s lack of action, the family says this is the city’s way of trying to cover up Taylor’s death.

TMZ reports that the city tried to say that there was a misunderstanding during the request of documents; regardless, the attorneys for Taylor have yet to receive the information they are looking for from officials. Taylor’s legal team wrote, “We intend to seek all sanctions available for these blatant and willful violations of CR 45 (a KY subpoena rule). Meanwhile, we present this information so that the public is able to see the lengths that the city will go to in order to withhold the truth and keep Tamika Palmer from learning the facts surrounding her daughter’s murder.”

In addition to the legal team calling out Louisville over its alleged stonewalling, they are also demanding that plain-clothes policing be put to an end. Sixteen neighbors all said the officers were not dressed as policemen and did not identify themselves as officers. They were also not wearing their badges. Attorney for Taylor, Sam Aguiar, said, “don’t put on the uniform and they don’t put on the badge, it lets them have the sense that they can just go rogue.” Louisville recently passed Breonnas Law, which bans no-knock warrants in the city and also requires officers to use body cameras when executing a search warrant.