Breonna Taylor killing: protests erupt in US after police avoid criminal charges for her death
- Breonna Taylor was shot multiple times by officers who entered her home on a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation
- Taylor’s case and killing of George Floyd in Minnesota became a major touchstone for US race protests. At least 127 were arrested in Louisville
Angry protesters demanded justice for Breonna Taylor in cities across the United States on after charges were filed against only one policeman involved in the controversial fatal shooting of the 26-year-old black woman, whose name has become a rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The biggest protest was in Louisville, the largest city in Kentucky, where Taylor was killed in March, but demonstrators took to the streets across the nation – from New York and Boston to Washington to Los Angeles.
Detective Brett Hankison, who was fired in June, was charged by a grand jury with three counts of “wanton endangerment” over shots he fired into flats adjoining Taylor’s home.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Louisville following the announcement, and Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Taylor family, condemned the grand jury decision as “outrageous and offensive”.
Police said early on Thursday they had made 127 arrests in Louisville. Some were arrested after damaging businesses and more were detained after jumping on city vehicles being used as barricades. Later, protesters who refused orders to disperse were arrested for curfew and unlawful assembly violations.