Death of African-American Breonna Taylor: four police officers charged by federal justice

A protester holds up the portrait of Breonna Taylor during a rally to commemorate the first anniversary of her death, in Louisville, Kentucky, March 13, 2021. AP - Timothy D. Easley

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Charges in a case that has become emblematic of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, that of the death of African-American Breonna Taylor.

Four police officers will have to answer for violations of American federal law. 

Advertising

Read more

With our correspondent in Washington,

Guillaume Naudin

It was March 2020. Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old paramedic, was killed in her home during a police intervention that degenerated and proved to be unjustified.

So far, only one police officer had been prosecuted by the State of Kentucky and was finally acquitted last March.

Absence of condemnation, therefore, but which could not last.

For more than a year, the US Department of Justice has been investigating and has just charged 4 police officers.

Three of them are being prosecuted for having falsified the constituent elements of the warrant which led to the murderous raid.

A fourth, the one who was previously acquitted, is accused of excessive use of force.

A sign of the importance of the case, it was the Minister of Justice Merrick Garland who himself announced these proceedings.

The lawyer for the family of Breonna Taylor also thanks the Department of Justice for its work.

This lawyer, who has already obtained $ 12 million for those close to Breonna Taylor, is the very media-friendly Ben Crump, a civil rights specialist.

He also defended the family of George Floyd, another African-American killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

These two violent deaths and others are sparking protests challenging policing practices across the country in 2020.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

  • United States