A week after she announced that Taylor would be featured on the cover of September’s issue of O Magazine, it has been revealed that Winfrey is also taking out billboards around Louisville, Kentucky, urging residents to “demand that the police involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged,” the sign reads. Also included is a link to UntilFreedom.com, a social justice advocacy group that has focused efforts on Taylor’s case.
“If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it,” reads a quote from Winfrey, 66, on the billboard.
The 26-year-old EMS employee was killed by a barrage of police gunfire in the middle of the night on March 13, after cops entered Taylor’s Louisville home with a “no-knock warrant” based on a tip that her partner, Kenneth Walker, had trafficked drugs through her home.
The pair were in bed when officers broke through her door. Believing they were intruders, Walker fired one shot, injuring one officer. They met Walker’s defense with a hail of more than 20 bullets.
Walker survived. Taylor, shot at least eight times, died several minutes later at the scene.
Since then, millions of Americans, including a number of highly influential celebrities, have taken to social media and the streets to protest Taylor’s death, and demand that the officers involved be arrested and charged for her death.
“From the beginning, our office has set out to do its job, to fully investigate the events surrounding the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron had said then in a statement, directed at protesters.
“We continue with a thorough and fair investigation, and today’s events will not alter our pursuit of the truth,” Cameron continued. “The stated goal of today’s protest at my home was to ‘escalate.’ That is not acceptable and only serves to further division and tension within our community. Justice is not achieved by trespassing on private property, and it’s not achieved through escalation. It’s achieved by examining the facts in an impartial and unbiased manner. That is exactly what we are doing and will continue to do in this investigation.”
Protesters have already pushed Kentucky lawmakers to officially ban the “no-knock warrant.” Meanwhile, Louisville’s FBI office is continuing its independent investigation into Taylor’s case, in search of potential civil rights violations by the Louisville PD.
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