Breonna Taylor‘s mother, Tamika Palmer, met with the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on Monday (March 14) demanding federal charges be brought against the former Louisville cops involved in her daughter’s killing.
“I’m here at the Department of Justice asking them to do the right thing,” Palmer told reporters after the meeting requesting federal charges. “This is bigger than Breonna. If no one addresses this issue, they’ll keep kicking in our doors and murdering us.”
On Sunday (March 13), Palmer marked two years since her 26-year-old was fatally shot during a botched police raid on March 13, 2020. An internal investigation revealed that one of the officers lied about information to obtain the search warrant for the raid.
“For the nation, it’s been two years and one day,” Palmer said. “For me, I’m trapped in March 13, 2020. I don’t know how people think I should just move on.”
Only one officer, Brett Hankison, was criminally charged in Taylor’s killing –– but not for her death. Hankison was charged with wanton endangerment for the 10 bullets he fired into the apartment. A Louisville jury acquitted Hankison earlier this month.
Hankison and another officer, Myles Cosgrove were fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The other officer, Jonathan Mattingly, retired in April 2021.
Palmer, along with her attorney, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump met with the DOJ for roughly 45 minutes calling for a federal investigation into each of the former officers.
“They said, ‘Be not dismayed,'” Crump said of the meeting. “They’re turning over every stone, looking at any civil rights charges on behalf of Breonna Taylor, because they would do the same for any citizen. Because Breonna Taylor deserves it.”
In the wake of Taylor’s death, social justice advocates renewed national calls to end no-knock warrants. Those calls continue to be raised following the death of 22-year-old Amir Locke in Minneapolis, who was shot and killed by a local SWAT team during a no-knock raid in February.
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