xi's moments
Home | Americas

Louisville police brace for more protests

By MAY ZHOU in Houston | China Daily Global | Updated: 2020-09-25 13:28

A Black Lives Matter activist confronts members of a militia a day after a grand jury considering the March killing of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker, in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, voted to indict one of three white police officers for wanton endangerment, in Louisville, Kentucky, US, Sept 24, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]

Police and National Guard troops in Louisville, Kentucky, braced for a second night of protests on Thursday after two police officers were shot Wednesday during demonstrations over a decision by a grand jury not to file homicide charges against police in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a black woman, during a March raid that went wrong.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear on Thursday condemned the shooting of the two Louisville police officers during protests Wednesday and called for protesters to be peaceful, saying "the answer to violence can never be violence."

Beshear said he spoke with President Donald Trump on Wednesday night after the officers were wounded. He said the president offered federal assistance if needed, but said they agreed at the time that the city and state had "appropriate levels" of law enforcement on the scene.

Beshear, a Democrat, urged State Attorney General Daniel Cameron to post online all the evidence that could be released without affecting the charges filed.

"Those that are currently feeling frustration, feeling hurt, they deserve to know more," he said.

The protests erupted after Cameron announced that a grand jury didn't bring any charges for the six police bullets that struck Taylor, but instead lesser charges against one of the white policemen for stray shots that hit the neighboring apartment.

Protesters started to run and hide when police officers in riot gear blocked the streets and started to throw pepper balls. In the chaos, two Louisville police officers were shot. Their injuries aren't life-threatening, according to authorities.

Larynzo Johnson, 26, was charged with 14 counts of wanton endangerment and two counts of assault on a police officer, according to the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections.

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was killed when three officers from Louisville Metro Police Department entered her apartment by force while executing a search warrant in the middle of the night on March 13.

She was asleep with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker at that time and they were woken up by the noise. Walker said they asked who it was but didn't get a reply so he fired one shot in the dark in self-defense.

Police said that the ensued chaos was exacerbated by Detective Brett Hankison, who blindly fired 10 shots into another apartment. He was fired in June.

The grand jury indicted only Hankison for wanton endangerment because some of his shots were fired into Taylor's next-door neighbors. There was no indictment against the officers for shots fired into Taylor's apartment and or her death.

The suspect in the investigation of the raid was Taylor's ex-boyfriend who later was arrested and said she had nothing to do with drug deals.

Taylor's death has become one of the rallying points for nationwide protests against police brutality. The grand jury's ruling in Louisville sparked protests as from Wednesday afternoon well into the night in Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington.

While protests against excessive force by the police have been going on for months across the nation, similar incidents continue to emerge.

In Salt Lake City, Utah, a 13-year-old autistic boy was shot nearly a dozen times by a police officer after his mother called 911 for help on Sept 4.

Golda Barton called 911 and asked for a crisis intervention officer to come to her home. She told the dispatchers that her son Linden need to go to a hospital for mental health treatment but was out of control.

She told the dispatcher that Linden might have a fake gun with him, that he was scared of police and a police badge was a trigger.

Four officers arrived at Barton's home and tried to get Linden, but he ran into backyard. The officers chased after him.

Police bodycam footage showed that one officer said "we could call sergeant. And tell him the situation. Because I'm not about to get in a shooting because he's upset".

"Yeah," another officer, who later shot Linden, replied. "Especially when he hates cops, it's going to end in a shooting."

"Get on the ground now!" one officer yelled. Another yelled, "Pull your hands out!"

The first officer then fired nearly a dozen times at the boy, gravely injuring him. The bodycam didn't show why the officer pulled the trigger.

According to his family, Linden was shot multiple times and suffered "injuries to his shoulder, both ankles, intestines and bladder."

Three separate investigations will now be conducted over the officer's use of deadly force.

The boy's mother Barton questioned why the police needed to open fire. "It's like giants against a tiny little kid. I said, 'Just grab him and tackle him.' Why didn't they just tackle him or anything else? Or tase him? Or bean bag hit him? Or just wait ... wait for him to just chill?" she asked.

Global Edition
BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349