News Roundup

On Tuesday, the city of Louisville announced a settlement agreement in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was killed by police as they served a search warrant at her home in March.  The city agreed to pay Taylor’s family $12 million and to make changes to Louisville Metro Police policy and practice.  The police reforms include mandatory commanding officer review of all search warrants, mandatory EMS/paramedic presence for the execution of all search warrants, and measures to increase officer engagement with the community.  Keep reading or more on this story and other news. Breonna Taylor.  Breonna Taylor’s death in March came to national attention as part of the protests of racial disparity in policing following George Floyd’s death in May.  When Taylor was killed, Louisville Police were serving a search warrant at her home as part of a series of coordinated searches in a drug investigation into her former boyfriend.  Last week the New York Times podcast The Daily released a two-part examination (Part 1; Part 2) of the events surrounding her death. Taylor was asleep with her boyfriend, a different person than the man who was the target of the investigation, when officers breached her apartment door with a battering ram.  Apparently mistaking the police for unlawful intruders, Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot towards the door and struck an officer in the leg, rupturing the officer’s femoral artery.  That officer and others returned fire, hitting Taylor at least eight times.  One [...]