It has been two months since Breonna Taylor was sleeping in her apartment on the south side of Louisville, Kentucky, when plainclothes police officers arrived outside her door in the early hours of 13 March.
Across the country, many people were starting to work from home as the grip of coronavirus quickly spread.But Taylor, a 26-year-old certified EMT, was an essential worker, still going to help at two Louisville hospitals as the city braced for the worst.
“She had no regard for her health when it came to helping others,” said lawyer Ben Crump in a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
“And the tragedy is it wasn’t coronavirus that killed Breonna Taylor. It was police officers that were being reckless and irresponsible and shooting from outside the house, shooting through windows. They don’t do this in other neighborhoods.”
With officials and the media largely distracted by the coronavirus pandemic, the police killing of Taylor, who is African American, largely escaped widespread scrutiny. Taylor’s family and friends called for justice, rallying outside downtown Louisville’s court complex in March, but they gained little momentum.
