Former officer on educating community on police brutality
Author of ‘Police Brutality Matters’ and former police officer Joe Ested joins Ed Henry on ‘America’s Newsroom.’
Nearly three months after 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an EMT, was fatally shot by officers executing a “no-knock” drug warrant in her apartment in Louisville, Ky., the police department on Wednesday released the incident report from that night.
But it’s virtually blank and inaccurate, according to The Louisville Courier-Journal, which reviewed the document.
The four-page incident report from March 13 lists the time, date, case number, incident location and the victim's name, Breonna Shaquelle Taylor, and says she is a 26-year-old black female. But her injuries are listed as “none,” according to The Courier-Journal. It lists the charges as "death investigation -- LMPD [Louisville Metro Police Department] involved" but checks the "no" box under "forced entry."
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A man holds a photograph of Breonna Taylor on her birthday as he kneels with other protesters on Atlantic Avenue during a solidarity rally for George Floyd on Atlantic Avenue, Friday, June 5, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Taylor, a black woman, was fatally shot by police in her home in March and Floyd, a black man, died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Taylor was fatally shot eight times when plainclothes officers used a battering ram to bust down her door. She died in her hallway in a pool of blood, her family’s attorney said. Her boyfriend -- who said he thought a robbery was taking place and dialed 911 -- shot at the officers, and Taylor was struck by their return fire.
The incident report redacts Taylor's street number, apartment number and date of birth. Under the "offenders" section, it lists the three officers who fired into the apartment: Sgt. Jon Mattingly, 47; Myles Cosgrove, 42, and Brett Hankison, 44, according to the news outlet.
Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes, who applied for the no-knock warrant, was reassigned Wednesday. The three officers who carried out the warrant had already been reassigned. But despite the demands of protesters, no one has been charged with a crime.
"Questions have been raised ... about how and why the search warrant was approved," acting Police Chief Robert Schroeder said. "As a result of those questions, I have placed Detective Joshua Jaynes, who applied for the warrant, on administrative reassignment until those questions can be answered.”
Under the report's "narrative" of events portion, only two words are listed: "PIU [Public Integrity Unit] investigation." The rest of the report was not filled out.
After the report was released Wednesday, the Louisville Metro Police Department issued a statement, saying: “Inaccuracies in the report are unacceptable to us, we are taking immediate steps to correct the report and to ensure the accuracy of the incident reports going forward.”
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"Full stop. It’s issues like this that erode public confidence in LMPD’s ability to do its job, and that’s why I’ve ordered an external top-to-bottom review of the department," Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said in a statement Wednesday. "I am sorry for the additional pain to the Taylor family and our community."
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