BOSTON (WHDH) - A crowd of several hundred in Roxbury sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Breonna Taylor on what would have been her 27th birthday, and said her death at the hands of police needs to be highlighted in order to change policies.
Taylor, an EMT, was shot eight times by Louisville police two months ago when they carried out a search warrant at her apartment. The three officers who shot Taylor are on administrative leave and have not been charged.
Protesters said the officers need to be arrested, and they don’t want Taylor’s name forgotten.
“She deserves more and we’re here to celebrate her name and uplift her life,” said Keturah Brewster. “We need all of these stories all of these situations to be highlighted and not blatantly ignored if we’re going to change the discourse and dismantle systemic and structural racism.”
Police say Taylor’s boyfriend fired on police in the raid. But a wrongful death lawsuit from the family claims police didn’t knock and should have called off their search because the suspect they sought had already been arrested.
Right now the FBI is investigating Taylor’s death. Nate McLean-Nichols of the Center for Teen Empowerment said it was particularly important to call attention to the oppression of black women.
“If we’ve been able to seek justice for George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, we need to do the same for our black women when they also continually oppressed and an even more marginalized group more than black men,” McLean-Nichols said.
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