U.S.|1 Dead After Man Shoots Into Crowd at Breonna Taylor Protest Park
BREAKING
Video footage showed a man firing more than a dozen shots at a park in Louisville, Ky., where protesters had gathered to call for justice for Ms. Taylor, who was killed by the police in March.
One man was killed and another person was injured in a shooting Saturday evening in a park where protesters against police violence have gathered for weeks in Louisville, Ky., the authorities said.
Videos posted online showed a man standing on the edge of Jefferson Square Park firing more than a dozen shots that sent protesters scrambling for shelter among tents and park benches.
One man died at the scene, and another person who was shot was found across the street at the Hall of Justice and taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the Louisville Metro Police Department said in a statement.
The police cleared the park to investigate the shooting. “Detectives are trying to gather as much information as possible in order to identify all who were involved in the incident,” the police said. There was no indication of any arrests.
“I am deeply saddened by the violence that erupted in Jefferson Square Park tonight, where those who have been voicing their concerns have been gathered,” Greg Fischer, the mayor of Louisville, said on Facebook. “It is a tragedy that this area of peaceful protest is now a crime scene.”
Louisville has been a center of the protests against police violence that have following the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in police custody in Minneapolis last month.
Mr. Floyd’s death renewed focus on Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American emergency room technician, who was shot and killed by Louisville police who were serving a search warrant at her apartment. Ms. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been in bed when officers entered after midnight. The police were executing a so-called no-knock warrant, which allows them to enter without identifying themselves. The police have said they did knock and identify themselves, an assertion Ms. Taylor’s relatives dispute.
During the encounter, Mr. Walker fired his gun, hitting an officer in the leg, and the police opened fire, hitting Ms. Taylor at least eight times. The warrant was issued as part of a drug investigation but no drugs were found in the apartment.
The Louisville police have dismissed one of the officers who opened fire, Brett Hankison, saying he violated their policy on the use of deadly force by “wantonly and blindly” firing 10 shots in Ms. Taylor’s apartment. The Louisville city council has also voted to ban no-knock warrants, a measure known as “Breonna’s Law.”
