Jakobi Burr, the son of a Kentucky resident, broke down into tears describing the moment he saw Louisville police officers pointing assault rifles at him on Oct. 26, 2018. Fourteen SWAT officers had smashed through the front doors of the Black teen’s home and fired an explosive inside while conducting a drug raid. At least five of those officers turned out to be the very authorities involved in the botched raid that killed emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor, according to VICE News. Burr was one of three children home at the time of that raid, which was captured on police body camera video.
“I was running and yelling ‘stop, stop,’” Burr told VICE News. He said the first thing that popped into his mind was that his dad, Mario Daugherty, had been shot. “Innocent family held at gunpoint, no reason, false accusations. It’s wrong. We (were) kids. We shouldn’t have to go through that especially if we didn’t deserve it.”
Burr's story is the subject of a lawsuit filed Oct. 21, 2019 on behalf of Daugherty and his girlfriend Ashlea Burr. The couple alleged in the lawsuit Atlanta Black Star obtained that Louisville officers violated the family’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure when the officers used explosives and drew “assault rifles on minor children.” One of the children was so frightened, she tried to run to her nearby grandmother's house in the rain without any socks, shoes, or a jacket. “Officers drew their assault rifles on her” and “told her to get on the ground," an attorney stated in the suit. “She repeatedly requested to be taken to her grandmother’s next door, but the officers refused the requests, kept her in the cold, wet conditions, and kept their rifles on her,” attorneys said in the lawsuit.
Even the warrant authorities used to justify the intrusion was based on false information, according to the suit. Detective Joseph Tapp alleged in a search affidavit the lawsuit cited that “a black male named Anthony McClain is growing marijuana and has multiple bags of marijuana packaged for sale in the front bedroom” and that “a white female named Holly was his girlfriend and owned the house,” the affidavit continued. “Those representations were false, made willfully and/or in reckless disregard for the truth, and even the most basic due diligence would have revealed their falsity,” attorney Josh Rose said in the lawsuit. He added that no one named Anthony McClain or Holly lived at the home, which at the time a man named Kevin Hyde owned.
The city ultimately dismissed the suit, and Taylor was killed five months later on March 13, VICE News reported. Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Rep. Lucy McBath called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Taylor's case, citing “troubling parallels” between the Daugherty and Taylor cases.
“The killing of Ms. Taylor is an unspeakable tragedy that requires immediate answers and accountability. Accordingly, we ask that the U.S. Department of Justice immediately launch an independent investigation into the shooting of Breonna Taylor, as well as a pattern or practice investigation into the Louisville Police Department for potential civil rights violations,” the lawmakers wrote.
Neither federal nor state prosecutors have charged any of the officers associated with Taylor’s death or the Daugherty home raid, but Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron used his platform at the Republican National Convention Tuesday to accuse protesters who he called "anarchists” of “mindlessly” tearing up American cities. Video from the latest protest showed demonstrators peacefully calling for justice Tuesday during a "massive demonstration," according to The Courier-Journal. It still ended in 71 arrests.
Gov. Andy Beshear said that "we need some finality in this investigation," during his daily briefing on Tuesday. "Miss Taylor's family deserves the truth … We at least need an explanation of what steps still need to be done on the process side."
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