The actions of the two cops, once they broke into the apartment were also understandable. With a warrant that empowered them to break into the apartment without the permission of Ms. Taylor, they expected to find one unarmed woman. This is what their surveillance led them to believe. As they breached the door they were met with gunfire. I don't know if one shot qualifies as "gunfire", but there is no disagreement about who shot first - it was Walker. I suppose it must be police training to fire blindly when fired upon, because they managed to not hit Walker, but did hit Taylor 5 times.
I say that once they broke into the apartment the cops' actions were understandable, but that doesn't mean that I think that their actions leading up to the break-in were understandable or right. I understand that they panicked when confronted with an armed man - but I believe that the situation should never have happened.
There are differing accounts regarding whether the police announced themselves before breaking down the door. The police claim that they identified themselves, Walker says that they did not. Of 12 witnesses, only one claims that he heard the police yell "police", and that was after he had twice said that they had not. Eleven other witnesses said that they did not hear the police identify themselves. Walker goes so far as to say that he shouted out several times asking who was at the door and received no answer.
Put yourself in the position of Walker and Taylor. Breonna Taylor was under suspicion by the police due to a previous relationship with a drug dealer, her former boyfriend. Walker knew about this ex-boyfriend and reported that he thought perhaps it was the ex-boyfriend pounding on the door. Imagine. You're sound asleep. It's after midnight. There's a pounding on the door. Maybe the person on the other side is hollering "police", maybe not. (It's been established that even with "knock first" warrants, the identification as police generally comes as the door is being battered open) Your girlfriend used to be involved with some shady characters. You have no idea who is trying to break down the door in the middle of the night.
Several items give weight to Walker's version of events. He was licensed to carry a firearm. He had no criminal record, or for that matter, any negative contact with the police. After he fired one shot, and the two cops fled the apartment, he called 911. He told the operator that someone had broken in and shot his girlfriend. That doesn't sound like someone who purposely tried to kill a police officer. And the charge of attempted murder of va police officer was dropped.
But let's go beyond the panicked reaction of Walker being confronted by two armed men breaking in and the cops' panicked reaction to someone who shot at them. Why was there a no-knock warrant issued and why did it have to be executed after midnight? The local prosecutor suspected that Breonna was still involved with her former boyfriend and was storing drugs and cash at her apartment. Instead of questioning her they decided that they would scare the shit out of her in the middle of the night (the police did not realize that she wasn't alone). They were parked outside her home for hours that night. Why not intercept her before she went inside and open the door with a key? The way that this happened was a recipe for disaster. And once the shootout concluded they made no effort to determine whether anyone had been shot inside and in fact did not send in paramedics for Breonna until 20 minutes after she was shot and only because Kenneth had called 911.
According to law as currently written, no one is responsible for Breonna Taylor's death. Granted, this death was accidental. No one went into that apartment looking to kill anyone, but the way it was carried out provoked a citizen to defend himself and his girlfriend, which in turn caused the police to return fire. How many of us would get fired from our jobs for "accidental" incidents that fell well short of someone dying? This isn't an isolated case.
Right wing police apologists are attempting to paint Taylor and Walker as the bad guys. Walker having shot first is being put forth as the reason Breonna is now dead, he has been called the reason she is dead. Breonna's past is being trotted out as an excuse for police action. But it's the broader circumstances that have to be looked at and questioned. Breonna Taylor, even though there was circumstantial indications that she may have still been involved with her ex-boyfriend's drug dealing, she had not been convicted of anything before the police had been given permission to break down her door. They didn't even have a shred of hard evidence that she had committed a crime - the warrant, which gave the police permission to break down the door of a citizen who had not been convicted of a crime, to look for evidence, which, as I have already stated, they didn't have, and as it turned out, didn't find in the apartment. What if Walker wasn't there? What was the plan, that is, what was the plan after destroying the door? Would Breonna have been thrown to the floor with her hands zip-tied behind her back while the police ransacked her apartment? The Fourth Amendment doesn't appear to be all that important. Once they found no evidence, who was going to repair the door? But they didn't have to worry about those little details, because, instead of a woman all alone in her apartment, they encountered a man exercising his First Amendment rights.
Before you unthinkingly defend the police and demonize the citizen, think about what you would do in this situation.
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