Louisville city council committee passes Breonna Taylor law

Breonna Taylor‘s life has been commemorated in a major way.

The Louisville Metro Council Public Safety Committee passed a proposal on Wednesday to severely curtail no-knock warrants in honor of Taylor, 26, who was killed by police.

Under the proposal, no-knock warrants would be limited to crimes including murder, hostage-taking, kidnapping, terrorism, human trafficking and sexual trafficking. The warrant could also only be sought during “imminent threat of harm or death.”

Breonna’s Law would ban no-knock warrants in narcotics cases, like the incident that led to the fatally shooting of Taylor.

Council members voted 7-0 to pass the law, and the proposal will now head to the full Metro Council for a vote on June 11.

“I can assure you that there is a crowd of people standing outside of City Hall at this exact moment that are expecting us to move with urgency, and I do not believe that we honor her by delaying and kicking the ball down the park,” Councilwoman Jessica Green, who chairs the committee, told the Courier Journal.

Taylor was shot and killed on March 13 when Louisville police officers entered her home unannounced to serve a no-knock warrant in connection with a narcotics investigation.

Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said that he thought someone was breaking in and fired off a shot. The officers returned fire, shooting Taylor eight times.

Walker was arrested at the scene for attempted murder but the charges against him were later dropped. No narcotics were found in the home.

“Had Breonna Taylor been killed by anyone except police, the person or persons responsible for her death would have been charged with a homicide,” Walker’s defense attorney Rob Eggert said in a court document as reported by WDRB.

The 911 call Walker made at the scene was released on May 29.

“I don’t know what happened … somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker can be heard telling the dispatcher. When asked where Taylor had been shot, he replied, “I don’t know, she is on the ground right now. I don’t know, I don’t know.”

The police involved in Taylor’s shooting have not yet been arrested or fired.

Source: Louisville city council committee passes Breonna Taylor law