As calls for justice for Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black woman slain while in her home in Louisville by Louisville Metro Police Department officers, continue to echo across the country, a new development in the case might bring justice a little closer. Breonna’s family has now updated their lawsuit against the city of Louisville, claiming that her shooting death was a result of authorities executing a no-knock search warrant on her home to speed up an ongoing gentrification project in the neighborhood.
The lawsuit, which was updated Sunday by the family’s attorneys, claims that Breonna’s home, which is around 10 miles from the redevelopment site, was targeted by law enforcement because there was, “a political need to clear out a street for a large real estate development project" ... adding that the 26-year-old’s death was the result of “a newly formed, rogue police unit violating all levels of policy, protocol and policing standards.” The document points out that this year in a 3-week plan-- and less than a month after Breonna’s death, 8 homes in her neighborhood were demolished to speed up the ongoing development of a multi-million dollar plan.
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The doc explains that the entire incident could have been avoided if cops had surveilled the homes or ran the plates on Breonna’s and her boyfriend’s cars and discovered that neither of the vehicles belonged to the suspects that the cops were searching for that night. Instead, by focusing on Breonna’s home, officers thought they were targeting some of the city’s violent drug rings when that simply was not the reality. Breonna and her boyfriend "were not anywhere close to Louisville’s versions of Pablo Escobar or Scarface. And they were not violent criminals. They were simply a setback to a large real estate development deal and thus the issue needed to be cleaned up,” the family explains in the documents.
A spokeswoman for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the allegations are "outrageous" and "without foundation or supporting facts." The spokeswoman continued, "They are insulting to the neighborhood members of the Vision Russell initiative and all the people involved in the years of work being done to revitalize the neighborhoods of west Louisville."
May Breonna Taylor rest in power.