Louisville cops were repeatedly told Breonna Taylor wasn't taking drug package for ex, they still raided her home
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: The police investigating Breonna Taylor's former boyfriend as a part of a drugs probe had been repeatedly told that she was not receiving any suspicious packages for him at home but they still insisted on listing it in their search warrant and went on to raid her home.
Breonna was fatally shot during a botched up police raid while she was inside her Louisville apartment on March 13. At the time of the incident, Breonna and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had reportedly been sleeping and were awakened when the officers burst into the home. Breonna was killed when three police officers opened fire at her boyfriend. The police had broken down her door using a battering ram in the middle of the night as part of the investigation into her ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover.
According to the cops, Breonna's home which is located in Louisville, Kentucky, had been crucial to the investigation and so it warranted the raid, Daily Mail reports. The cops said that Glover had been picking up packages from the property earlier in the year and then driving down to a known "drug house". A new report, which was recently released, revealed that the officers had asked the postal service whether or not any suspicious packages were sent to Breonna's home and were told that there were none.
However, the police still insisted that they raid the home even though Breonna had been described as a "soft target" beforehand. As reported by WDRB, the authorities wanted to know whether Glover was sending any packages to Breonna's apartment which could have been relevant to their investigation. Glover had told the police that he had shoes delivered to the address in January. Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron had attempted to have the release delayed by a week claiming that he needed some more time to redact witness names.
However, the judge had given him until Friday, October 2. The release follows the news of a juror in the case filing a motion to have all the evidence released. The evidence includes statements from a neighbor who first claimed to have heard the cops announce themselves but later changed their story to say that they didn't. We had earlier reported that the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department had "insisted" that no body camera footage exists of the actual raid itself, as per a Vice report. However, they were able to obtain footage by other officers and SWAT team members who had been responding to the shooting.
In the video footage, the officers are heard discussing the number of shell casings that are on the floor on the ground as officer Hankison is heard asking whether the bullets are "theirs". The SWAT officer, securing the scene, is heard asking Hankison to leave until the Public Integrity Unit arrives at the scene. The Public Integrity Unit is responsible for investigating police shootings. In the video, Hankison is also heard asking the SWAT officers whether they had found a long gun and if someone had been found dead inside. In another clip, the cop is seen approaching another SWAT officer and asking him whether his body camera is on before the video gets cut.