An internal Louisville police report after officers fatally shot Breonna Taylor on March 13 sheds more light on why officers forcibly entered her apartment the night she was killed, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal. It provides no evidence aimed at justifying the shooting that has prompted three months of protests in Louisville and national outrage, with critics accusing police of breaking into the home of an unarmed Black woman for no legitimate reason and killing her. Yet the report and corroborating evidence show that Taylor had more extensive ties than previously made public with an accused drug trafficker at the center of a larger narcotics investigation.
The report, corroborated by jail phone recordings and other documents obtained by the Courier Journal, details many links between Taylor and Jamarcus Glover, a target in a drug probe that prompted police to request the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment. Plainclothes officers battered her door, searching for drugs and illicit cash, which were not found. Glover was arrested the same night at an alleged drug house and released on bail but is now a fugitive after failing to post bail when he was charged again last month. “Breonna Taylor did not deserve to die no matter what her role in all this,” said a law enforcement official. Mayor Greg Fischer condemned the release of the report. “Breonna Taylor’s death was a tragedy. Period. Justice, peace and healing are what is needed for her, for her family and for our community,” he said. “It is deeply reckless for this information, which presents only a small fraction of the entire investigation, to be shared with the media while the criminal process remains ongoing.” The report details results of a tracking device on Glover’s vehicle that shows it was driven to Taylor’s apartment six times in January.