Louisville to announce $12 mln settlement in Breonna Taylor shooting

The city government of Louisville, Kentucky, is expected to announce a $12 million financial settlement on Tuesday with the family of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman shot dead by police in March, the New York Times reported.

The settlement to end a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by her family will be accompanied by police reforms, including a requirement that commanders approve search warrants before they are put to a judge, the Times said, citing three unidentified people with knowledge of the matter.

Taylor‘s death, alongside that of George Floyd, a Black man killed in May by a white Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck, gave rise to one of the largest protest movements in U.S. history, with daily demonstrations in cities ever since.

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed in March when Louisville police forced their way into her apartment using a so-called ‘no-knock’ arrest warrant that did not require them to announce themselves.

In June, the Louisville Metro Police Department fired one of the three officers involved, detective Brett Hankison, who is white, for displaying “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he fired ten bullets into Taylor‘s apartment.

The two other officers have been reassigned to administrative duties.

None of the three has been criminally charged, but the Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Black Republican, is expected to bring the case before a grand jury this week, according to local media reports.

The attorney for Taylor‘s family, Ben Crump, is expected to join Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Taylor‘s relatives at Fischer’s office at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) to announce the settlement.

A spokesman for the Louisville Metro Police Department declined to comment, referring questions to the mayor’s office. A spokeswoman for the mayor did not respond to a request for comment