In an open letter addressed to the Attorney General of the State of Kentucky, Beyoncé insists that the agents who shoot Breonna Taylor be prosecuted. The 26-year-old woman died in mid-March when the police raided her house. She was in bed at the time and was hit by eight bullets.
The officers had the type of search warrant where they didn’t have to knock on the door or announce that they were entering the apartment. In response to this case, the Louisville Police Department introduced a law – Breonna’s Law – banning that method. Beyoncé emphasizes in her letter that, however, the three agents involved are still employed by the police and no legal action has been taken against them.
In her letter, the singer urges the authorities to take action on three fronts: prosecution of the agents, openness about the internal investigation into the raid and an investigation into the corps’ response to the case and “other practices that have resulted in the death of black citizens. “
Breonna Taylor’s name has been seen a lot on signs and banners over the past few weeks at the Black Lives Matter protests. Like George Floyd, who was killed when a cop pushed a knee to the neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest, she has become one of the symbols of police brutality against the African American population in the US.
Read her full letter here.