Police in Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot on March 13, have released their report on the incident. It is essentially blank, and incorrectly states key details.
The four-page incident report from the Louisville Metro Police Department, published Wednesday by the Louisville Courier Journal, lists the injuries Taylor suffered as “none.” That is false: Police shot her at least eight times, before she died in a pool of blood on the floor of her apartment.
It also incorrectly states that there was no forced entry, even though officers entered Taylor’s apartment by using a battering ram after obtaining a “no-knock” search warrant against Taylor’s boyfriend.
Under a section for notes on the incident, the report only lists that it is under internal investigation. It also omits most identifying details about the three officers involved in Taylor’s death.
Law enforcement officials have been opaque in their handling of Taylor’s killing, one of a series of high-profile incidents of police violence against Black people in recent months, which has sparked major nationwide protests; renewed calls for reforming — or in some cases, defunding — police departments; and ushered in a wider societal reckoning on racism and white supremacy.
Police routinely lie or mislead the public, despite many cases where there is video evidence directly contradicting the police’s account.
On May 27, the Courier Journal sued Louisville police to demand the release of its investigative file on Taylor’s killing, which the department has previously declined to disclose, claiming the investigation is ongoing. The week before, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the file had been turned over to the state’s attorney general for review, and to determine whether police would face charges.
On Wednesday, Fischer called the nearly blank police report “unacceptable.”
“Full stop. It’s issues like this that erode public confidence in LMPD’s ability to do its job, and that’s why I’ve ordered an external top-to-bottom review of the department,” he said in a statement to the Courier Journal. “I am sorry for the additional pain to the Taylor family and our community.”
The three officers involved in the incident and the detective who requested the search warrant have been reassigned. Nearly three months after Taylor died, they still have yet to be arrested or charged. Taylor would have turned 27 last Friday.
