Kentucky: 2 Louisville officers shot amid Breonna Taylor protests

Hours after a Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for Breonna Taylor’s death and protesters took to the streets, authorities said two officers were shot and wounded during the demonstrations expressing anger over the killings of Black people at the hands of police. Interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said a suspect was in custody but did not offer details about whether that person was participating in the demonstrations. Both officers are expected to recover, and one is undergoing surgery.

The officers were shot after investigating reports of gunfire at an intersection where there was a large crowd. Several shots rang out as protesters in downtown Louisville tried to avoid police blockades, moving down an alleyway as officers lobbed pepper balls. People covered their ears, ran away, and frantically looked for places to hide. Police with long guns swarmed the area, then officers in riot gear and military-style vehicles blocked off roadways.

The violence comes after prosecutors said two officers who fired their weapons at Taylor, a Black woman, were justified in using force to protect themselves after they faced gunfire from her boyfriend. The only charges were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into a home next to Taylor’s with people inside. The FBI is still investigating potential violations of federal law in connection with the raid at Taylor’s home on March 13th 2020.

Ben Crump, a lawyer for Taylor’s family, denounced the decision as outrageous and offensive, and protesters shouting, “No justice, no peace!” immediately marched through the streets.

Scuffles broke out between police and protesters, and some were arrested. Officers fired flash bangs and a few small fires burned in a square that has been at the center of protests, but it had largely cleared out ahead of a nighttime curfew as demonstrators marched through other parts of downtown Louisville. Dozens of patrol cars blocked the city’s major thoroughfare.

Demonstrators also marched in cities like New York, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, and Philadelphia. Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by white officers who entered her home during a narcotics investigation. State Attorney General Daniel Cameron said that while the officers had a no-knock warrant, the investigation showed they announced themselves before entering.

The warrant used to search her home was connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside. Along with the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota, Taylor’s case became a major touchstone for nationwide protests that have drawn attention to entrenched racism and demanded police reform. Taylor’s image has been painted on streets, emblazoned on protest signs, and silk-screened on T-shirts worn by celebrities.

Several prominent African American celebrities joined those urging that the officers be charged.

The announcement drew sadness, frustration, and anger that the grand jury did not go further. The wanton endangerment charges each carry a sentence of up to five years. It is almost like a slap in the face. Governor Andy Beshear authorized a limited deployment of the National Guard. Beshear also urged Cameron to post online all the evidence that could be released without affecting the charges filed.

Those that are currently feeling frustration, feeling hurt, they deserve to know more. The case exposed the wide gulf between public opinion on justice for those who kill Black Americans and the laws under which those officers are charged, which regularly favor police and do not often result in steep criminal accusations. Criminal law is not meant to respond to every sorrow and grief.

Cameron, Kentucky’s first Black attorney general, said the officers acted in self-defense after Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them. Hankison and the two other officers who entered Taylor’s apartment announced themselves before entering and so did not execute the warrant as “no knock”. The city has since banned such warrants. According to Kentucky law, the use of force by Officers Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove was justified to protect themselves.

This justification bars the law from pursuing criminal charges in Taylor’s death.

FBI crime lab determined that Cosgrove fired the bullet that killed Taylor. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire when police burst in, hitting Mattingly. Walker told police he heard knocking but did not know who was coming in and fired in self-defense. Cameron, who is a Republican, is a protégé of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and has been tagged by some as his heir apparent.

Cameron was also one of 20 names on President Donald Trump’s list to fill a future Supreme Court vacancy. Justice is not often easy. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, are calling for policing reform. Biden says United States should start by addressing excessive force, banning chokeholds, and overhauling no-knock warrants.

Hankison was fired on June 23rd 2020. A termination letter sent by Schroeder said Hankison had violated procedures by showing extreme indifference to the value of human life when he wantonly and blindly fired his weapon. Mattingly, Cosgrove, and the detective who sought the warrant, Joshua Jaynes, were placed administrative reassignment. The city settled a lawsuit against the three officers brought by Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, agreeing to pay her $12 million and enact police reforms.

On September 19th 2020, from the start, Doctor Rebecca Shadowen, an infectious disease specialist in Kentucky, advocated for social distancing, hand-washing, and mask-wearing.

Shadowen hoped her community of Bowling Green could become a model for the rest of her state, where residents sparred over stay-at-home orders and challenged Kentucky’s mask mandate in the courts. In May 2020, while offering her expertise as a member of the Bowling Green-Warren County Covid Workgroup, Shadowen fell ill. At first, Shadowen complained of feeling tired, but on the night she was taken to the hospital, she woke up saying she was short of breath.

Shadowen toggled between local hospitals, at times being placed on a ventilator and in the intensive care unit. During weeks Shadowen regained her strength, she was lucid enough to continue working from her hospital bed and share what she knew about the virus that was ravaging her body in unexpected ways. There were multiple times Shadowen thought she was turning the corner and thought she was on the road to recovery.

But after dealing with complications from the virus, including abdominal bleeding and weakened lungs, Shadowen died on September 11th 2020 surrounded by her husband and two adult children. Shadowen was 62. Shadowen and her husband were college sweethearts at Western Kentucky University, and together they enrolled at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Shadowen went on to specialize in infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and Lyme disease.

Shadowen worked out of the Medical Center at Bowling Green, where colleagues leaned on her medical knowledge of more than three decades and she enjoyed helping medical students and residents. Even after Shadowen became sick, she continued on the county’s covid workgroup, urging the need for a local mask ordinance. When Shadowen learned something especially important, she would send a group text, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Shadowen believed the simple act of wearing a mask could stop the spread of covid. It is not politics, it is science. After Shadowen’s death, Beshear tweeted his praise of her as being a front line hero. Shadowen’s husband believes she contracted covid the way he and their daughter did, from a home health aide who had infected his elderly mother. But Shadowen’s son did not test positive for covid.

Shadowen’s husband and daughter had mild symptoms, which made her debilitating struggle all the more frustrating. Before Shadowen got sick, she went to her church, empty during the pandemic, and prayed in a pew. Shadowen was conflicted, wrestling with all the risks and her responsibilities as a health care worker. Shadowen’s role is important, but it is no more important than anyone else’s.

Shadowen was not bitter, she used her last few months to understand everything she could about covid.

Shadowen fought covid harder than anybody because she knew how. Shadowen’s husband described her as the glue that held their household together, working long shifts, taking care of the finances, making meals, and shuttling the kids between soccer practice and ballet, all without breaking a sweat. On September 6th 2020, Churchill Downs Racetrack will continue its tradition of playing “My Old Kentucky Home” at the start of the Kentucky Derby despite criticism of the song about American slavery.

But the performance of the tune, which is also Kentucky’s state song, will be different than in prior years. Normally, the moment would include fans singing along. In 2020, it will be instrumental only and preceded by a moment of silence and reflection. The Kentucky Derby, one of the most-watched sporting events in the United States with an average of 15 million television viewers each year, is taking place without fans in attendance after it was postponed in March 2020 because of the covid pandemic.

The song will be played by bugler Steve Buttleman, instead the usual University of Louisville marching band. The 100-year tradition of singing the state song of Kentucky has been thoughtfully and appropriately modified. “My Old Kentucky Home” was written by composer Stephen Foster, a Pennsylvania native, in the 1850s. Its original lyrics tell the first-person tale of an enslaved person being sold down the river from Kentucky to work hard in “the field where the sugar-canes grow”.

Later versions tell the same story in third person.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, the song as Foster wrote it is actually the lament of an enslaved person who has been forcibly separated from his family and his painful longing to return to the cabin with his wife and children. Later generations came to associate the song with plantation culture and blackface minstrel shows. As its original anti-slavery meaning became less apparent over the years, criticism of its performance grew.

The second line of the song that contained a racial slur that was repeated multiple times during the tune was changed in the 1980s after Carl Hines, the first African American state legislator to serve Louisville’s 43rd House District, introduced a resolution that would substitute the slur for the word “people”. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the president of Churchill Downs and recommended that they play “My Old Kentucky Home”. This is a song that goes back to the pre-Civil War period.

It used to have some language in it that could have been viewed as racially insensitive, that was dropped out 30 or 40 years ago. It is a very much a part of the state’s culture and tradition and absolutely should be played at the Kentucky Derby. Thousands of demonstrators calling for justice for Breonna Taylor are expected to gather near the Kentucky Derby, replacing the traditional crowds of dapper dandies and women in fanciful hats who will be absent from the stands because of the pandemic. America’s most famous horse race is scheduled to be run, months after the covid forced a postponement from its traditional May date.

But the Kentucky Derby in Louisville could face disruption from protesters seeking to keep the public’s attention on the Taylor shooting case.

Taylor was fatally shot March 13th 2020 when police conducted a “no knock” drug raid at her apartment. Taylor was unarmed, and her supporters have been arguing for months that the police officers involved in the case should be criminally charged in her death. One detective has since been fired in connection with the shooting, which remains under investigation.

Marches and rallies in support of Taylor’s family are scheduled for downtown Louisville and for outside Churchill Downs, the racetrack that is home to the legendary horse race that is one of the sport’s three annual Triple Crown events. Crowds gathered in downtown Louisville for what was the 100th day of protests over the Taylor shooting. Demonstrators pointed at Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Kentucky state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, alleging that they have not done enough to resolve the Taylor case more quickly.

Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, filed a lawsuit against the city of Louisville and its police department. Walker had fired at officers when they executed the no-knock warrant at Taylor’s home, telling authorities later that he assumed the officers were invaders trying to conduct a robbery. An attempted murder charge against Walker was later dropped.

But Walker alleges in his lawsuit that the charge was meant to silence him and cover up Taylor’s murder.

Walker firing his weapon was the action that prompted police to fire the shots that killed Taylor. Supporters of Taylor note, however, that one officer, Detective Brett Hankison, was fired in June 2020 for firing 10 shots during the raid. Neither Hankison nor two other officers, Sergeant Jon Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, who allegedly fired shots had faced charges in the case.

Kentucky Derby will be run without spectators because of the covid.