Justice for breonna taylor: PART 1
November 26, 2021
On November 9, 2021, the Louisville Metro Police Merit Board began hearing the case of former Louisville Metro Police detective Myles Cosgrove who is seeking to regain his job after being fired for fatally shooting Breonna Taylor. This comes after nearly two years of people calling out “Justice for Breonna Taylor,” “Say her name,” and “Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.” These chants have been prevailing cries of people demanding legal repercussions for the police officers involved in the tragic killing of Breonna. I too join with the millions of voices shouting, “Justice for Breonna Taylor.” But I do so for different reasons—reasons which seem difficult or wrong to accept. Upon further looking at the case I’ve found the details of Breonna’s life and the sequence of events that led to her death to be extremely complex, and it’s led me to question—question if Breonna’s death is truly a racial issue. To many the answer to this question is clear cut. “Of course, this is a racial issue” they would say; but to me, this is a layered case with a clear indication that the American law enforcement and legal systems overarchingly maintain bad policies and practices.
Though I consider many elements of this case to be complex, I have made some conclusions. If you do consider this a matter of race, I believe it’s evident that this case isn’t the typical BLM case we’ve seen in the past. Think about Eric Garner, Philando Castille, Alton Sterling, and Stephon Clark—all of whom were killed by police officers on the street after a single encounter. These interactions weren’t planned based on evidence—they were initiated through day-to-day police work. In this light, Breonna’s killing is dissimilar. This wasn’t a routine traffic stop or encounter outside of a convenience store; this case involved compounded evidence and surveillance where any proceeding course of action was planned, and the result of the surveillance and action plan was a no-knock warrant for Breonna’s residence and Jamarcus Glover’s residence, Breonna’s ex boyfriend. For Glover, this evidence presents as reliable; however, I can’t say the same for the evidence on Breonna.
In some ways, the public recognizes the difference between this case and others. BLM protests were widespread during 2020, yet, Breonna Taylor became, in and of itself, her own powerful movement, somewhat operating in isolation from other BLM protests. Considering this difference, I ask myself, and you, this: would this situation have unfolded any differently if Breonna were white, or if the police officers were Black? I don’t believe so. Instead of a racial issue, I believe the killing of Breonna is about a flawed system and a lack of accountability. In particular, I don’t consider this a racial issue because a similar case happened the day before Breonna was killed. On March 12th at 4:30 AM, Duncan Lemp from Maryland was killed during a raid. Likewise, no one in the home heard any warnings, and shots were believed to have been blindly fired from outside the home and through Lemp’s window. The SWAT officer wasn’t charged in the death of Lemp, and although the official reporting indicated that Lemp had ignored to raise his hands, got out of bed and grabbed an assault-style rifle to shoot the officer, his family also maintains that the police officers opened fire on him while he slept. And the fact remains that they executed a no-knock warrant.
The similarity in the cases can be seen as a balancing act that removes the relevance of race—and if you agree with this point, then this was a matter of bad policy, bad execution, and pure irrationality. What this then calls for is increased accountability and an improved legal structure for warrants. This, among other reasons, has led me to conclude that race was irrelevant in the unfolding of events the night she died, especially if we consider the exchange of gunfire and the haphazard plan for the raid. My hope is that by peeling back these layers we can accurately assess this case and use it to provide direction moving forward.
Breonna Taylor was a 26-year-old medical worker who was shot and killed by Louisville police officers on March 13, 2020, during a botched raid on her apartment. By all accounts Breonna was a good person. Her friends and family said she was “full of life” and “easy to love,” while the family lawyer said she was just beginning to figure everything in her life out and had just turned a corner.
The details of this case become murky when Breonna’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, and his relationship with Breonna is evaluated. According to legal records, Glover had a criminal past that preceded his relationship with Breonna, but his relationship with Breonna carried on from 2016 through 2018. However, my focus isn’t on Glover’s entire history. The only elements of Glover’s history I deem relevant to the case are the years intertwined with Breonna’s life, as it was their relationship that led the police to her home.
During their relationship Glover was in and out of jail on drug charges. According to bond paperwork, Breonna paid at least $7,500 in bail for Glover and his associate in 2017 and 2019 (the year they were no longer dating). At the beginning of 2020 Glover was detained once again. Though he was no longer in a relationship with Breonna he called her for help. This conversation was recorded. It was reported that during the conversation he told her whom to contact to arrange his bail. The details from these conversations, cellphone records, Glover’s listed address (which was Breonna’s home), bail paperwork, audio recordings of police interrogations, and other documents led the police to believe they were actually in a relationship from 2016 through 2020. But with all the available information, we know this wasn’t true. Though they maintained passive contact, Glover said in a call on March 13th that he didn’t have “nothing going on with Bre no more.” This is also evident at the time as Breonna was in a relationship with Kenneth Walker.
The police believed Glover had been using Taylor’s home as a spot to store drugs. At the time, the city had been running an investigation and program where they acquired vacant buildings to disrupt illegal activity—possessing nearly half of the vacant buildings by the end of 2019—and were working to acquire the rest. Among these vacant buildings, 2424 Elliot, 2425 Elliot, 2426 Elliot, and 2427 Elliot were listed as those to be acquired. According to court records it so happened that 2424 Elliot was a unit Glover and his associate occupied. The records show that they ran their drug operations through a series of “trap houses” where they stashed crack cocaine, marijuana, and prescription pills, and unit 2424 was named among these homes. This information was provided by an informant who went inside the unit and reported seeing six men packaging crack cocaine and passing it to customers through a mail slot in a security door. With this information, on December 30, 2019, police executed search warrants in 2424 and 2426 Elliot, as well as a house some blocks away, ultimately seizing eight guns, a surveillance system, and 4.9 grams of crack according to a police log. Consequently, Glover and his five associates were arrested, but later released on bail.
"They seen everything. No illegal activity. A hug is not illegal."
Following these events, on January 2nd, a camera overlooking the 2400 block of Elliot was installed according to an internal report he signed. Within an hour, the footage captured between 15 and 20 cars briefly stopping in front of unit 2424, suggesting to police that it was trafficking narcotics. On this day a white Chevrolet Impala stopped in front of the house, and Glover exited the car. It was reported that this car was registered to Breonna. Though the car was captured on camera, in an interview Glover said, “We’re literally standing outside,” and that they “had their camera. … They seen everything. No illegal activity. A hug is not illegal. …She’s not bringing me no boxes, she’s not bringing nothing.”
Over the next two months, the new squad monitored the Elliot addresses where Glover operated, in addition to Breonna’s apartment, which was 10 miles away. According to internal reports, they put a GPS device on Glover’s car, tracking it to Breonna’s apartment complex six times. It’s also reported that Glover left Breonna’s residence with packages—the contents of which are unknown. According to Glover, he only had clothes and shoes sent to Breonna’s apartment because he was afraid it would be stolen if they were delivered to his home. Breonna’s car was also seen at the trap-house multiple times, and was photographed in front of the house in February. With this surveillance, the evidence collected on the Elliot homes was considered extensive enough for a warrant. Police then raided Breonna’s apartment and unit 2424 on the same night by way of a no-knock warrant. In the case of unit 2424 the evidence proved to be accurate as they found a table covered in drugs packaged for sale, including a plastic sachet containing cocaine and fentanyl according to police logs and a laboratory report. However, the information compiled for Taylor’s apartment was much thinner and unreliable.
The issue lies within the no-knock warrant. Consider the history of no-knock warrants which represent the militarization of the police. No-knock warrants were implemented during the war on drugs and typically were/are used in narcotics investigations when police need the element of surprise to disrupt criminal activity to prevent criminals from destroying evidence. No knock-raids are considered high risk and and are only to be used in scenarios of unwavering confidence. In my opinion, this wasn’t the case for Breonna. With respect to the warrant, it was argued that there was inadequate justification for the raid and the use of a no-knock warrant on Breonna’s residence. In particular, the evidence that linked Taylor and Glover (which was deemed inadequate justification) was that Glover reportedly retrieved packages from Taylor’s home and his overall reliance on Breonna for bail.
The combination of these elements led the police to believe Breonna played a role in Glover’s operation. A recorded jailhouse call made to his girlfriend also convinced authorities of this connection. In the call, when asked where to find bail money, he’s captured saying that Breonna was holding “thousands of dollars” for him. He went on to say that Breonna had about $8,000 that he recently gave her, that she had picked up another $6,000 for him, and that Breonna kept all his money. These claims aren’t verified, but he was recorded again telling another associate that the money was at Breonna’s home. Although, in different recorded call from the jail on March 13, an associate named Demarius Bowman, who was arrested with Glover told his sister that the group had given all of their money to another woman, Alicia “Kesha” Jones. Jones was arrested as well. When arrested she was holding $3,413 in cash. No money, drugs, or anything illegal was found at Breonna’s residence.
These details indicate that there was indeed some form of a connection between Breonna and Glover—a conclusion I believe is very reasonable to reach. However, I don’t consider this to be enough to conclude that she was aiding his criminal activities, and based on this evidence I also don’t believe a warrant should have been issued. If they truly believed Breonna played a role in Glover’s operations, I question why they didn’t use surveillance cameras as they had with Glover to monitor Breonna’s residence to fortify their suspicions instead of relying on the GPS and pictures of received packages with unknown contents? In my opinion, I believe it’s because they never cared to.
These elements shed light on the institutional flaws that provided the police the authority to execute the raid in the first place. They were given the bandwidth to determine that Breonna was involved in Glover’s dealings based on inconclusive evidence which led to a warrant. Further consider that their surveillance failed to catch that Breonna was dating Walker. This oversight, and their bad surveillance failed to detect that Walker was at her apartment. Because of this failure, they expected to see an unarmed woman alone in the apartment, which wasn’t the case. This haphazard planning led them to miss that Breonna was with Walker—a licensed gun carrier. It further shows that the raid itself is only one (and the final) element of how the system failed.
When the no-knock warrant was executed just after midnight, Breonna was at home sleeping. Prior to the raid there was an ambulance on standby. An hour before the raid the ambulance was instructed to leave which was in direct opposition to standard practice. It was reported that at the last minute, the no-knock warrant was changed to knock-and-announce. Police reported that they knocked on the door several times declaring that it was the police before using their battering ram. This claim was partly confirmed by a single witness who said they heard the officers shout “police” once before using the battering ram; however, Walker and several neighbours stated that they never announced that it was the police. Walker said they awoke to a loud banging on the door, and when asked who it was there was no reply.
The variation in reports renders the recap of the situation inconclusive. Although, if we consider the reports from the police, witnesses on both sides, and Walker, the key take away is that both sides could be true. How? Well, it’s possible that the police may have announced themselves several times. Although unlikely, it’s possible that the witness who heard a single announcement only caught the last knock. And if that’s the case, it’s possible that all of the neighbours, Breonna, and Walker all missed the other announcements and knocks because they were sleeping. On the other hand, in line with the witnesses, it’s possible that the police were dishonest with how they presented the information. Here, if we assume the police indeed knocked once, then it’s highly likely that everyone missed the announcement and woke up to banging noises because they were sleeping. I’ve chosen to use this explanation to align with what witnesses heard. If we proceed under the assumption that this second scenario is true, the problem here is the execution. If the police announced themselves just once, the conclusion I draw is that they merely did it as a matter of formality. It was a half-hearted attempt to be “courteous” and say they truly did announce themselves and didn’t have to because they had a no-knock warrant.
This isn’t farfetched. In fact, in 2015, Brian Schaefer conducted a study on no-knock-raids. His data was derived from a police database that used the pseudonym Bourbonville for the city and police department, but the demographics and descriptions matched that of Louisville. Schaefer found that 73 raids were conducted between two units, and each raid involved using a ram to break the door down. According to a detective, these no knock raids, or quick announcements of their presence is an ideal strategy for them. He indicated that once they announce their presence, that they’ve fulfilled their duties and that they move quickly to limit opportunities to destroy evidence or grab a weapon. In a study by the Louisville Courier Journal, in some no-knock warrant cases LMPD officers cited a history of violence or the possibility of weapons as the reason for the warrant request—arguing the element of surprise was crucial so police didn’t walk into an ambush. I consider this point to be very telling when considering that law enforcement was unaware of what they’d find at Breonna’s home. To maintain the element of surprise they limited their knocking.
This approach simply doesn’t allow for a response and comprehension by sleeping individuals, and it’s extremely unlikely that people in this state would be able to hear a single shout. Logically, if someone sleeping missed a single shout and heard loud banging on their door, they would become defensive and/or fearful. This is precisely what happened. In particular, Walker specifically feared it was Breonna’s ex-boyfriend. Fearing for his life and being a licensed carrier, when the hinges broke off of the door he fired a single shot, hitting Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly in his thigh. This prompted the police to respond with multiple shots, hitting Breonna five times. In particular, Brett Hankison blindly fired 10 rounds, while Myles Cosgrove, who is said to be the officer that fatally shot Breonna, shot 16 rounds into the apartment. Walker told investigators that Breonna coughed and struggled to breathe for at least five minutes. It was later reported that Breonna likely died less than a minute after she was shot and couldn’t have been saved.