Breonna Taylor's name is known around the world but she still can't get justice at home

Family expresses anger and disappointment after jury decided not to charge police officers directly for killing of 26-year-old medical worker in her own home.

Breonna Taylor’s family spoke out for the first time on 24th Sep 2020 since a grand jury in Kentucky announced that it had decided not to charge three police officers directly in the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker in March, shooting her 6 times in her hallway or her apartment.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, on Friday attended a press conference at a downtown Louisville park that has become a focus for protests and a makeshift memorial to Taylor, who was shot dead in her apartment after police barged in and fired a hail of bullets during a botched investigation.

Breonna Mother wept and was too upset to speak, Bianca Austin, Palmer’s sister and Breonna's aunt, read a statement written by

Tamika Palmer.

“Know this: I am an angry Black woman,” Palmer’s statement read. “Angry because our Black women keep dying at the hands of police officers … you robbed the world of a queen.”

A grand jury, a citizen body appointed by the authorities in the US to decide in some investigations whether criminal charges should be brought, in Louisville determined that the three officers who fired their weapons in Taylor’s home should not be charged directly for Taylor’s death.

One of the officers, Brett Hankison, was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for blindly shooting from outside Taylor’s apartment, with bullets penetrating the homes of Taylor’s neighbours.

All three officers opened fire after Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought intruders were breaking into the apartment and reached for his gun, firing one shot and injuring one of the officers.

Hankison was fired by the LMPD on June 23, 2020. On September 15, the city of Louisville agreed to pay Taylor's family $12 million and reform police practices. On September 23, a state grand jury indicted Hankison not for Breonna Taylor's death, but on three counts of wanton endangerment for endangering a neighbour with his shots. The two other officers involved in the raid were not indicted.

Taylor's death and the non-indictment of the police officers for it led to protests across the United States.