Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills is one of dozens of protesters facing felony charges after being arrested in Louisville on Tuesday.
The group of protesters marched to the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron to demand the prosecution of the law enforcement officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor in March, according to the Courier-Journal.
Stills, who was entered into a jail logbook just before midnight, was arrested and charged with intimidating a participant in the legal process, which is a felony, as well as misdemeanor disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. His arraignment was set for Wednesday morning. Another 86 protesters were similarly arrested and charged.
Louisville Metro Police Department spokesman Lamont Washington said in a statement that the protesters who were chanting on Cameron’s lawn were given the opportunity to leave before getting arrested and that “at (Cameron’s) request, they were trespassed from the property.”
He also said the charges against the demonstrators came “due to their refusal to leave the property and their attempts to influence the decision of the Attorney General with their actions.”
Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, died after being shot eight times by police officers who entered her home in the middle of the night without identifying themselves to execute a no-knock search warrant to see if she had received packages containing drugs from a known dealer. Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, said he heard the officers break into the home and fired his weapon at them, thinking it was a home invasion. The officers returned fire, killing Taylor. Authorities found no drugs in Taylor’s home.
One of the three officers involved in Taylor’s death has been fired by the Police Department, but none have been charged. The Louisville office of the FBI said this month it is making the investigation into the death of Taylor a “top priority.”
Protesters have been calling for all of the officers involved in the raid on Taylor’s apartment to be fired and charged. Taylor’s death, along with the death of George Floyd and others, has inspired nationwide protests calling for the end to police brutality and racial injustice.
