Police in Louisville, Kentucky have declared a state of emergency and two federal buildings have temporarily shuttered ahead of the state attorney general’s announcement in the Breonna Taylor case, anticipating possible riots.
The emergency announcement was issued on Monday afternoon by interim Louisville Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Schroeder, citing the need for “appropriate level of staffing to provide for public safety services.” In practice this translates into all leave and vacation requests being placed on hold.
A state of emergency has been preemptively declared in Louisville in anticipation of an announcement regarding the Breonna Taylor case pic.twitter.com/NxTpF3Ja9H
The US district courthouse in Louisville and the nearby US Citizenship and Immigration Services field office were also shuttered on Monday for the rest of the week, per orders from a federal judge.
Both federal and local authorities seem to be preparing for the impending announcement by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the case of Breonna Taylor, an emergency medical technician killed in March.
Taylor, 26, was fatally shot by police attempting to conduct a “no-knock” drug warrant, after her boyfriend opened fire on officers, believing them to be intruders. Black Lives Matter and other protesters have been calling for the arrests and indictments of the three officers involved.
One of the officers was fired in June for “extreme indifference to the value of human life” and violating department procedures. Last week, Louisville agreed to pay Taylor’s family a $12 million settlement and implement a series of police reforms. The city has already outlawed no-knock warrants as well.
Protesters have denounced the settlement as the “bare minimum” and insisted that only indictments will provide true justice.
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