How Louisville, Lexington protests unfolded after Breonna Taylor decision
After an announcement that only one of the three officers involved in the shooting death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor would be indicted, protesters gathered in Louisville and Lexington Wednesday night.
The officer who was indicted faces three charges of wanton endangerment over bullets fired into a neighboring apartment occupied by three people. None of the charges filed had to do with Taylor’s death.
The announcement shocked and angered people who have been calling for justice in Taylor’s death for months. In Lexington, downtown protests were peaceful as those demonstrating walked on sidewalks and briefly moved to streets before returning to the courthouse plaza downtown. They chanted and some carried signs. Some moved about 9 p.m. toward the University of Kentucky campus before the protest concluded.
In Louisville, pockets of protesters moved around the city Wednesday night. In some instances police clashed with protesters. Police told the Courier Journal that 127 people were arrested. The Associated Press reported the arrests were for “damaging businesses, jumping on city vehicles used as barricades,” curfew violations and unlawful assembly.
Two LMPD officers were shot in downtown Louisville while protests were ongoing in the area, but police did not confirm Wednesday night that the shooting was connected to the protests or give further details. Both officers were in stable condition and a suspect was taken into police custody.
After a curfew went into effect at 9 p.m. in Louisville, protesters largely cleared out of the main protest area. About twenty remained in Jefferson Square Park, along with some police. There were remnants of a few small fires that had been set in trash cans in the area.
In Lexington, protests were without incident. Lexington police were not visible at any point and protesters largely kept to the sidewalks. Protesters said they didn’t want to do anything that would lead to arrests, but that they were still going to fight for change.
“Not a single Black person who was impacted by that incident had a single one of those criminal charges related to them, you all,” protest organizer April Taylor said. “And somehow, we’re supposed to believe that if we’re just peaceful and we just wait, justice will come.”
Fred Mills, general manager of the Kentucky Theatre, was outside with his fist raised as protesters marched by the theater. He said the protests reminded him of Vietnam War protests.
“It does my heart good to see these folks out there,” he said. “They have something to say. Lots of folks are angry, they’re frustrated. I’m just glad to see them out there.”
Protests also were held in other cities, including Cincinnati. New York, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Atlanta, according to the Associated Press.
Louisville protester Shayla Moore, 26, said she’s not sure what’s next, but it has to be more than just voting. Wednesday’s indictment wasn’t enough, she said.
“That was justice for the other people,” Moore said. “That wasn’t for her.”
Taylor, a Black woman, was shot and killed by police when investigators arrived at her apartment the night of March 13 to execute a warrant. The officers have said they knocked and announced themselves before breaching the door to the apartment, but Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he and Taylor had been asleep did not know who was entering.
Walker fired one shot, which investigators said struck police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg. Mattingly, detective Myles Cosgrove and former detective Brett Hankison all returned fire. Hankison was charged because several of his shots went into a neighboring apartment, endangering its three occupants, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Wednesday.
In Lexington, protest organizers called attention to the fact that Hankison worked as an officer in the Lexington Police Department before joining the LMPD. Hankison resigned from the Lexington Police Department in 2002, and a Lexington supervisor wrote in a memo that he strongly recommended against rehiring Hankison.
As the sun went down in Louisville, people milled around Jefferson Square Park in Louisville. Sporadically, chants would break out: “Say her name, Breonna Taylor.”
A group started marching down Broadway, stopping traffic before cars followed the protest, beeping in solidarity.
Earlier, as a crowd gathered at Sixth and Jefferson, a man with a megaphone urged the crowd to vote in this November’s election.
“Right here, right now, this is history,” he told the crowd circled around him. “Right now I need to get everyone to get out and register to vote. Because this is useless if our voice isn’t heard.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 8:43 PM.