Beyonce called for justice following the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who was killed by police in her home, in a letter to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
“Your office has both the power and the responsibility to bring justice to Breonna Taylor, and demonstrate the value of a black woman’s life,” the singer wrote on Sunday.
Taylor was an emergency medical technician who was asleep in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment when officers used a no-knock warrant to enter her home after midnight in March. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a warning shot with a gun when he thought intruders were breaking into the apartment. One of the officers who entered was shot in the leg.
Three other officers responded by shooting several shots into the apartment. Taylor was struck eight times and later died.
Beyonce asked Cameron to use his powers to bring criminal charges against the three officers who shot Taylor, to commit to transparency in the investigation and prosecution of the officers’ criminal conduct, and to investigate the Louisville Metro Police Department’s response to Taylor’s death, as well as “pervasive practices that result in the repeated deaths of unarmed black citizens.”
“Don’t let this case fall into the pattern of no action after a terrible tragedy,” she said. “With every death of a black person at the hands of police, there are two real tragedies: the death itself, and the inaction and delays that follow it. This is your chance to end that pattern. Take swift and decisive action in charging the officers. The next months cannot look like the last three.”
Attention to police brutality and racial injustice has been heightened since George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in Minneapolis after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes last month.
