Federal Buildings Closed All Week in Louisville in Anticipation of Possible Breonna Taylor Announcement
Throughout the investigation into Breonna Taylor’s death, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has refused to give a timeline as to when his office will announce its decision on whether to press charges against the Louisville police who killed her.
But while Cameron has still given no indication on when he will announce his findings, several federal buildings in downtown Louisville will be shut down from Monday to Friday this week. The closures are seen as an indication that an announcement is imminent, reports CNN.
The Gene Snyder United States Courthouse will be closed for the duration of the week at the request of the General Services Administration, which manages the facility, according to the Louisville Courier Journal. According to the local paper, a courthouse official confirmed the building was being closed in anticipation of a major announcement. Presiding judges at the federal courthouse were advised to delay all their scheduled in-court appearances or convert them to video-conference proceedings.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services field office in Louisville will also be closed this week due to a “court order,” according to CNN. Last week, US Attorney Russell Coleman asked the Department of Homeland Security to send federal agents to further fortify the Snyder courthouse and the ICE office, as well as the Mazzoli Building and the US Attorney’s office, which are all in close proximity to each other.
Federal agents have been a presence at hotbeds of protest around the country, including Portland and Chicago.
It has been more than six months since Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville Metro Police, who raided her home as part of a narcotics investigation into her ex-boyfriend. Taylor was asleep in her bed when police barged in through her door. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a warning shot, believing the officers to be intruders. While Walker survived the ensuing hail of bullets from the officers, the 26-year-old emergency medical technician did not.
After months of protests, no charges have been filed against the three officers who invaded Taylor’s home. One, Brett Hankison, was fired from the department; he was the subject of several previous complaints, including allegations of sexual assault and planting evidence.
On Sep. 10, a grand jury was empaneled to consider the evidence in the Taylor case. Cameron has said little about the case publicly, tweeting on Sep. 9, “My office is continually asked about a timeline regarding the investigation into the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor. An investigation, if done properly, cannot follow a specific timeline.”
Last week, the city of Louisville agreed to pay a $12 million settlement to Taylor’s family, along with a slate of police reforms. These include an early action warning system for identifying officers with “red flags,” as well as a housing stipend paid out to officers who live in certain low-income neighborhoods in the city.
