Breonna Taylor's boyfriend settles lawsuits over botched police raid

[December 14, 2022]  (Reuters) - Louisville will pay $2 million to settle two lawsuits filed by the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by police during a no-knock raid at her apartment in the Kentucky city two years ago, the Washington Post reported.   

Kenneth Walker III, the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, stands next to a painting of her at a gathering to mark two years since police officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor when they entered her home, at Jefferson Square Park in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., March 13, 2022. REUTERS/Jon Cherry

Kenneth Walker filed the lawsuits against the city in state and federal court claiming that plainclothes officers violated his rights when they burst into Taylor's apartment while the couple was asleep and killed her on March 13, 2020, during the botched raid.

Taylor's death "will haunt Kenny for the rest of his life," Walker's attorney Steve Romines said in a statement to the Washington Post on Monday. "He will live with the effects of being put in harm’s way due to a falsified warrant, to being a victim of a hailstorm of gunfire and to suffering the unimaginable and horrific death of Breonna Taylor."

Neither Romines nor an attorney for the city of Louisville were immediately available for comment.

Walker fired once at what he said he believed were intruders. Three police officers responded with 32 shots, none of which hit Walker but six struck Taylor, killing her. Walker was arrested and charged with attempted murder, but charges were dropped.

The killing of Taylor, along with other 2020 killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, among others, sparked outrage and galvanized protests that peaked in intensity during that summer.

Her killing also shone a spotlight on no-knock raids, a controversial police tactic that can be dangerous for police and civilians.

In August, U.S. prosecutors charged four former Louisville police officers for their roles in the raid. The federal charges came five months after a Kentucky jury acquitted former detective Brett Hankison of wanton endangerment. Hankison's stray bullets during the raid hit a neighboring apartment.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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