Kentucky asks for outside investigation of shooting

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on Wednesday that state and federal investigators should review the case of a 26-year-old African American woman whom police shot and killed in her home. Breonna Taylor died on March 13 as officers entered her house in Louisville to execute a search warrant. “The truth is always the very best answer,” the Democratic governor said. “I just want to make sure that we get that.”

What do we know? An online petition calling for an outside investigation said police officers went to the wrong house. But the officers had a warrant to search Taylor’s home in a drug investigation, though she wasn’t the suspect, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. Police, neighbors, and Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, disagree about whether the officers announced themselves when they arrived. Walker allegedly fired a shot as the officers entered, and they reciprocated. Taylor was shot eight times, and Walker was charged with shooting one of the officers. County prosecutor Thomas Wine asked the state attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Taylor’s death to avoid a conflict of interest. The suspect in the drug investigation was a third person who did not live in the home.

Dig deeper: Read my report in The Sift about another recent racially charged shooting case that has changed hands several times due to conflicts of interest.