Winfrey demanding justice for Breonna Taylor with billboards
LOUISVILLE,
Ky. (AP) — First, Oprah Winfrey put Breonna Taylor on the cover of O,
The Oprah Magazine. Now the media mogul is spreading her message with
billboards demanding justice for the Kentucky woman shot to death during
a police raid.
Twenty-six billboards displaying a portrait of
Taylor are going up across Louisville, Kentucky, demanding that the
police officers involved in her death be arrested and charged, according
to social justice organization Until Freedom. That’s one billboard for
every year of the Black woman’s life.
The billboards, funded by the magazine, showcase the magazine cover dedicated to Taylor, the Courier Journal reported. Also displayed is a quote from Winfrey: “If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it.”
Until Freedom thanked the Oprah magazine for its work on the billboards.
“Together,
we will make sure no one forgets #BreonnaTaylor’s name and recommit to
the fight for justice for her and her family,” the group said in a tweet.
Taylor,
an emergency medical tech studying to become a nurse, was shot multiple
times March 13 when police officers burst into her Louisville apartment
using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. The warrant
to search her home was in connection with a suspect who did not live
there and no drugs were found.
Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend,
was originally charged with attempted murder after he fired a shot at
one of the officers who came into the home. Walker has said he didn’t
know who was entering the apartment and was firing a warning shot. The
charge was later dropped.
Global
protests on behalf of Taylor, George Floyd in Minnesota and others have
been part of a national reckoning over racism and police brutality.
Tensions have swelled in Taylor’s hometown and beyond as activists, professional athletes and social media stars push for action while investigators plead for more patience.
The
decision whether to bring state-level criminal charges against the
Louisville officers rests with Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
He took the Taylor case after a local prosecutor recused himself from
reviewing the matter. One of the officers has been terminated and two
other officers are on administrative reassignment.
Cameron, the first African American elected to the attorney general’s job in Kentucky, has declined to put a timetable on his decision since taking over the case in May.
“We
remain committed to an independent and thorough investigation into the
death of Ms. Breonna Taylor,” Cameron said Friday on his official
Twitter account.
“The investigation remains ongoing, and we
currently await additional testing and analysis from federal partners,
including a ballistics test from the FBI crime lab,” the tweet said.
The
FBI field office in Louisville said Friday that a “significant amount
of ballistic evidence” was collected when investigators returned to
Taylor’s apartment in June.
“This evidence is being tested and
analyzed at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia,” the FBI’s
Louisville office said in a statement. “Once the FBI Laboratory has
completed its findings, FBI Louisville will promptly share our results
with the attorney general’s office.”
Christopher 2X, an
anti-violence activist in Louisville, told reporters this week that he’s
encouraged by the commitment that FBI officials locally and nationally
have shown to the case. He commented after participating in a meeting at
the FBI’s Louisville office.