The incident report put together by the Louisville Metro Police for the murder of #BreonnaTaylor is nearly blank.
Breonna Shaquille Taylor, 26, was fatally shot by three officers who entered her home using a no-knock search warrant, signed off on by District Judge Marry Shaw, as a part of a narcotics investigation. The officers were not dressed in uniform and entered Taylor’s home around 12:40 a.m. The officers say they announced their presence when entering the home. However, Taylor’s boyfriend and several neighbors say they did not. Thinking the officers were intruders, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a warning shot that hit one of the officers in the leg.
After an incident, especially one that includes death, police are required as a part of their job to keep a thorough, detailed record of what happened. For Taylor’s murder, that wasn’t the case. Instead, the police report only lists a small amount of information. The four-page report includes the time, date, case number, incident location, Taylor’s name, age, sex, and race. But her injuries were listed as “none” despite her being shot eight times. The record lists the charges as “death investigation” and has the “forced entry” section checked off as “no,” even though officers busted inside Taylor’s home using a battering ram.
The three officers that shot Taylor include Sgt. Jon Mattingly, 47; Myles Cosgrove, 42; and Brett Hankison, 44, who were listed underneath the “Offenders” portion of the report. The rest of the report bears no other information besides the incident’s date, March 13, and that it is a “PIU investigation.” “This document is proof that LMPD continues to make a mockery of transparency,” said Jon Fleischaker, counsel for the Louisville Courier-Journal of the USA TODAY Network. “Under the Fischer administration, there has been a consistent policy and practice of refusing to tell the public what is going on with the police, regardless of how inappropriate the officer conduct has been,” Fleischaker added.
Fleischaker went on to say that city officials are “are refusing to honor their obligations to disclose the basic information necessary for the citizens of Louisville to have a meaningful debate about what needs to change. How can we even seriously debate police reform if the police won’t engage, and the mayor won’t stand up to them?” said Fleischaker. The Courier-Journal is suing LMPD, seeking the immediate release of the department’s investigative file in Taylor’s shooting, USA Today reports.
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