Beyoncé added her voice to the growing outcry for the police officers who killed Breonna Taylor to be arrested in a letter sent to Kentucky’s Attorney General.
In the letter, which is posted on her official website and is addressed to Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Beyoncé highlighted that it’s been three months since Taylor’s death—which occurred after three Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officers barged into her apartment with a “no-knock” warrant” and shot Taylor at least eight times. An official incident report sparked more questions than it answered.
In those three months, people all over the world have protested the deaths of Taylor, George Floyd, and many others at the hands of police officers, and Louisville even passed a law banning “no-knock” warrants, which is called “Breonna’s Law.”
“Three months have passed—and zero arrests have been made, and no officers have been fired,” Beyoncé wrote. “The LMPD’s investigation was turned over to your office, and yet all of the officers involved in the shooting remain employed by the LMPD. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officers Myles Cosgrave and Brett Hankison must be held accountable for their actions.”
Along with calling for Mattingly, Cosgrave, and Hankison to be arrested and charged with Taylor’s death, Beyoncé is also asking for a fair and transparent investigation into Taylor’s death along with the response by the LMPD.
“Don’t let this case fall into the pattern of no action after a terrible tragedy,” she wrote. “With every death of a Black person at the hands of the police, there are two real tragedies: the death itself, and the inaction and delays that follow it. This is your chance to end that pattern. Take swift and decisive action in charging the officers. The next months cannot look like the last three.”
The Kentucky attorney general’s office acknowledged that it’s aware of the letter from Beyoncé.
“As the letter makes requests related to the ongoing investigation involving the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor, we have no further comment,” the Kentucky attorney general’s office said in a statement.
You can read the full letter on Beyoncé’s website.
H/T Washington Post