Breonna Taylor’s mother pleads for calm; Louisville mayor stops no-knock warrants

The mother of the Louisville EMT shot to death by police pleaded Friday for peaceful demonstrations and the mayor suspended the use of no-knock warrants in the aftermath of a violent protest.

Seven people were shot in Louisville Thursday night while protesting the death of Breonna Taylor.

Two of the seven were taken to the hospital for surgery, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Friday morning as he explained what happened and how police responded. Those shot have since stabilized and begun to recover, he said. One was in critical condition, police said.

The protests started peacefully, but became violent when property damage began after several hours, according to LaVita Chavous, assistant chief of police.

“Once we started seeing significant property damage to cars and buildings downtown, small fires started in garbage cans, we had to move in to take more action and try to disperse crowds,” she said.

Someone in the crowd of protesters eventually began shooting, Chavous said.

Chavous and Fischer said police did not fire their guns during the protests.

“If you hear anything to the contrary, that is not factual,” Fischer said.

Chavous said no shooting suspects had been identified as of Friday morning.

After the shots were fired, police began to fire tear gas into the crowds, Chavous said.

“It was only to enable officers to reach victims and provide medical aid,” she said.

Chavous said two police officers were taken to the hospital with chest pains. One was kept overnight, she said. An Owensboro man was taken into custody and charged with disorderly conduct and failing to disperse, she said.

Chavous said later Friday that three people were charged in relation to Thursday night’s protests.

Fischer said the city was preparing for a second round of protests on Friday evening.

Looking to defuse tensions in Louisville, Taylor’s mother on Friday called on protesters to continue demanding justice but to do it in “the right way without hurting each other.”

Police entered Taylor’s home on a “no-knock” search warrant, a type of warrant that Fischer announced Friday would be suspended until further notice. A no-knock warrant allows police to enter a residence unannounced. It is legal to execute no-knock warrants when trying to prevent the destruction of evidence. Police were searching for narcotics and a suspect who lived elsewhere when they forced their way into Taylor’s apartment.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear read the statement from Breonna Taylor’s mother hours after gunshots erupted.

In her statement, Tamika Palmer said her daughter — an emergency medical technician — devoted her life to others, and the “last thing she’d want right now is any more violence.”

“Please keep saying her name,” her statement said. “Please keep demanding justice and accountability, but let’s do it the right way without hurting each other. We can and we will make some real change here. Now is the time. Let’s make it happen, but safely.”

Beshear, speaking on CNN, said the protest started peacefully but some people later “instigated and caused some actions that turned it into something that it should not have been.”

The Democratic governor also called on President Donald Trump to retract a tweet in which he threatened to take military action to bring Minneapolis “under control.” The president, reacting to the torching of a Minneapolis police station by protesters outraged over the death of a black man in police custody, warned that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

“I hope the president will retract that statement,” Beshear said. “During these times we can condemn violence while also trying to listen, to understand, to know that there is deep frustration, rightfully so, in our country. That there has not been enough action on creating equality, of opportunity and in health care.”

Beshear added that elected officials have “a responsibility, not just to maintain the peace, which is what we ought to be doing, but to also listen, to show empathy, to try to find a way to move in the right direction, not the wrong one.”

“I feel the community’s frustration, the anger, the fear, but tonight’s violence and destruction is not the way to solve it,” Fischer said in a previous video posted to Twitter.

Thursday night’s demonstration came as protesters across the country, in cities including Los Angeles, Denver, New York and Memphis, turned out in alliance with demonstrators in Minneapolis, where George Floyd became the latest black man to die in police custody.

The Louisville protests quickly followed the release of a 911 call Taylor’s boyfriend made on March 13, moments after the 26-year-old EMT was shot eight times by narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door. No drugs were found in the home.

Attention on Taylor’s death has intensified since her family sued the police department this month. The case has attracted national headlines alongside the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood in February.

Live video from downtown Louisville around 12:30 a.m. showed some protesters behind makeshift wooden barricades, which appeared to be made out of picnic tables spray-painted with the words “You can’t kill us all.” A small fire inside a trash can was visible in the middle of the street.

Police in body armor and face shields held batons and lined up downtown. Protesters recorded officers with their cellphones.

Kentuckians are still under social distancing mandates driven by the coronavirus pandemic. Many protesters wore masks.

Chants early Friday included “No justice, no peace” and “Whose streets? Our streets.”

Fischer called on protesters to resume peaceful protests, and said he hears their frustration and concern.

“We understand this is one incident in a book of unequal power dynamic between law enforcement and African-Americans in America for 400 years,” he said Friday. He also said this situation was one that should be a “wake-up call” to everyone in Louisville.

“This is a challenge for the entire community. Not just black Louisville. White Louisville, brown Louisville, black America, white America, brown America, this is the challenge of our time that we must rise to.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 6:16 AM.