A four-page incident report from the night Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, is almost completely blank.
Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman and ER tech with no criminal record, was shot and killed on March 13 inside her apartment. The Louisville Metro Police Department released the incident report on Wednesday, and the Courier Journal says it includes Taylor's name, the incident location, time and date, and a case number, but several details that are already known, including Taylor's date of birth, have been redacted.
The report lists Taylor's injuries as "none," and under "forced entry," the "no" box is checked off, despite police officers using a battering ram to gain access to Taylor's apartment, the Courier Journal reports. The "narrative" section used to describe an event only says "PIU investigation."
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In the early morning of March 13, three plainclothes detectives entered Taylor's apartment on a "no-knock" search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation. The officers said they announced themselves, but Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, and neighbors dispute their account. Walker said he and Taylor believed people were trying to break into their apartment, and he fired a warning shot that allegedly hit one officer, Sgt. Jon Mattingly, in the leg. In return, the officers began firing, and attorneys for Taylor's family say she was shot at least eight times, dying on the floor of her hallway. No drugs were found in the apartment, and no charges have been filed against the officers.
The Courier Journal is suing the Louisville Metro Police Department in an attempt to obtain the investigative file into the shooting; the department has refused, citing the ongoing probe. The newspaper's editor, Richard Green, said he read the incident report and "have to ask the mayor, the police chief, and the city's lawyers: Are you kidding? This is what you consider being transparent to taxpayers and the public? At a time when so many are rightfully demanding to know more details about that tragic March evening, I fail to understand this lack of transparency. The public deserves more."
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