The fight for justice in the murder of Breonna Taylor is finally leaning in her family’s favor. New details have surfaced and reveal police detective Joshua Jaymes lied about specific details connected to the warrant which gave the green light for Louisville cops to break into her home in pursuit of alleged drugs.
Breonna Taylor’s Case Intensifies
According to reports, Jaymes previously wrote about personally verifying a suspected drug dealer had packages at Taylor’s home. However, Joshua had very different accounts under oath.
Detective Joshua Jaynes swore in a March 12 affidavit that he verified the packages with a postal inspector. But Jaynes admitted something different on May 19 while being questioned by LMPD investigators looking into Taylor’s fatal police shooting during a March 13 search of her apartment. Jaynes said he actually had asked another officer, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, to verify with postal inspectors that Jamarcus Glover, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend and the target of a narcotics investigation, was getting packages at her home. And Mattingly had been told indirectly she wasn’t. (Courier-Journal)
Breonna Taylor’s Grand Jury Audio Emerges
According to reports, there’s conflicting testimony over the seconds before police fatally shot Taylor in her own apartment in March. Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker – in the recordings – is heard saying they had no idea who was at the door and said the cops didn’t announce themselves before breaking into the apartment.
The officers involved in the raid, though, insisted in interviews with investigators that they had loudly identified themselves as the police before they burst through the door. It was only after one officer was shot by Mr. Walker, they said, that they opened fire at the couple, killing Ms. Taylor. The dueling accounts of a chaotic and tragic night are captured in 15 hours of recordings from the grand jury’s examination of the fatal raid, which was part of a drug investigation targeting a man who was arrested elsewhere. For the first time, some of those directly involved in the police shooting — including neighbors, officers and Mr. Walker — are heard describing the fateful night. (MSN)
Breonna Taylor Grand Jury Tapes
In September 2020, Attorney General Daniel Cameron addressed being pressured to release the recordings publicly.
Cameron added that he was concerned that the release planned for Wednesday could hamper the ongoing federal investigation and lead to a “poisoning of the jury pool.” “The grand jury is meant to be a secretive body,” Cameron said in a statement released Monday night. “It’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.” The move follows the filing of a motion in Louisville, Kentucky, by a grand jury member to have the sealed transcripts and records released “so that the truth may prevail.” (NBC News)
The Family Makes Demands
After the grand jury’s decision, Taylor’s family demanded grand jury details be made public. The family’s statement came during a news conference in Jefferson Square Park.
Speaker after speaker pilloried that outcome, repeatedly criticizing Cameron, the police force and the country’s justice system, which Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, described as fundamentally not set up to protect people of color in America. “It’s clear that that is the way they will always see us,” Palmer said in a statement that was read aloud at the news conference by her sister, Bianca Austin. “I was reassured Wednesday of why I had no faith in the legal system, in the police, in the law … The system as a whole has failed her.” (Herald-Dispatch)
