Police on July 14 arrested dozens of protesters who gathered on the front lawn of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s Louisville home, calling for justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old woman who was killed in her home in March.
More than 100 protesters gathered to march through Louisville, before locking arms outside Cameron’s home. Authorities said Tuesday that 87 people are facing a felony charge of intimidating a participant in a legal process, a Class D felony; second-degree disorderly conduct, a Class B misdemeanor; and third-degree criminal trespass.
“The protesters chose to occupy the front yard of a home owned by the Kentucky attorney general and continuously chant toward he and his neighbors,” Sgt. Lamont Washington of the Louisville Metro Police Department said in a statement.
“All were given the opportunity to leave, were told that remaining on the property would be unlawful, and chose not to leave.”
The crowd had gathered to protest the death of Taylor, a Kentucky medical worker who was killed in her home on March 13 after law enforcement officers executed a “no-knock” drug warrant after midnight.
After the law enforcement officers entered Taylor’s home, Kenneth Walker, the boyfriend of Taylor, fired a handgun which he legally owned, believing the Louisville home he and Taylor shared was being broken into.
In the confrontation, a police officer was struck by a round. Police returned fire, hitting Taylor eight times, resulting in her death. No drugs were found in the home.
The Louisville Metro Police department on June 23 fired police officer Brett Hankison, who was involved in Taylor’s shooting death. In a letter from the city’s police department shared on Twitter last month, interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder said Hankison violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” fired 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment.
Schroeder also said that Hankison—one of three officers involved in Taylor’s shooting—violated the rule against using deadly force. The remaining two officers have been placed on administrative leave.
One of the individuals arrested during Tuesday’s protests was “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Porsha Williams, according to WHAS. She was reportedly with protesters associated with New York-based social justice organization Until Freedom.
The special agent in charge of Louisville’s FBI field office said earlier this month that federal officials are working to probe potential civil rights violations by the Louisville police officers involved in Taylor’s shooting death.
