Family of Kentucky woman killed by police hires civil rights attorney

LOUISVILLE — A prominent civil rights and personal injury attorney has been hired by the family of a black woman who was fatally shot by Kentucky police in her home.

Attorney Ben Crump has represented the families of other high-profile black shooting victims, including Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery.

He was hired Monday by the family of Breonna Taylor, who was 26 when officers entered her Louisville home early March 13 as part of a narcotics investigation and fatally shot her, news outlets reported.

Police said they were returning fire when one officer was shot in the apartment and wounded.

Breonna Taylor was only 26, and one of the heroes America is lifting up right now. She was an EMT working to save lives during this pandemic. But police shot her eight times in her apartment on March 13. @emarvelous spoke with her mother and her sister. https://t.co/qnHvCK5IHY

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) May 12, 2020

A defense attorney for Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, has said in court filings that Walker fired in self-defense because police did not announce themselves and he thought officers were breaking in.

The suit states that Walker has a license to carry and kept firearms in the home for protection.

Taylor had no criminal record.

The lawsuit alleges that police fired more than 20 rounds into Taylor’s home, striking objects in the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, both bedrooms and into an adjacent residence where a 5-year-old child and pregnant mother were present.

The police department has declined to answer several questions about the case, citing an ongoing internal investigation.

Taylor’s family filed a lawsuit last month police that says the officers were not looking for Taylor or her boyfriend, but for a suspect who was already in custody.

“Breonna Taylor was shot at least eight times by the officers’ gunfire and died as a result. Breonna had posed no threat to the officers and did nothing to deserve to die at their hands,” reads the complaint, which was filed by two local attorneys.

Crump called the killing “inexcusable” in a statement to news outlets.

“We stand with the family of this young woman in demanding answers from the Louisville Police Department,” Crump said. “Despite the tragic circumstances surrounding her death, the Department has not provided any answers regarding the facts and circumstances of how this tragedy occurred, nor have they taken responsibility for her senseless killing.”

Louisville Metro Police Department spokeswoman Jessie Halladay said in an email that the internal investigation continues. She declined to comment further.

Crump also represents the family of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was fatally shot in February in a coastal Georgia town. A white father and son were arrested last week after video emerged of them confronting Arbery, which led to a struggle with punches thrown, three shots fired and Arbery collapsing dead.

The men told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar and it took more than two months for the arrests, which is fueling calls for the resignation of local authorities who initially investigated the case and reforms to Georgia’s criminal justice system.

Crump also was involved in the 2012 case of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black Florida teenager shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer.

The Louisville Courier Journal contributed to this report.