Tamika Palmer Files Complaints Against 6 Special Investigations Officers Involved in Breonna Taylor Case

Today marks exactly one year since Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in Louisville, Ky., by reckless police officers who were executing a search warrant that should never have been issued. It’s also been just over five months since it was officially decided that no one murdered Breonna Taylor and that nothing in the way of substantial criminal charges is coming in regards to the officers who were involved in the clear (to anyone Black) case of systemic racism and systemic incompetence in policing that took the 26-year-old’s life.

But none of us who seek to hold police officers accountable for how they police Black people have given up on achieving some semblance of justice for Taylor or her family—least of all, her mother, Tamika Palmer.

WLKY reports that Palmer has filed complaints against six officers who are connected to the deadly raid on March 13, of last year. This time, the complaints aren’t against the officers involved in the actual shooting that took place during the execution of the dubiously-obtained drug warrant; instead, they focus on members of the Louisville Metro Police Department’s Professional Standards Unit.

From WLKY:

The Professional Standards Unit and the Public Integrity Unit fall under the special investigations division of the LMPD.

According to the complaints, sent to WLKY by the family’s attorney Sam Aguiar, Palmer is calling on the PSU to investigate the officers for their various roles — from those involved with Place Based Investigations, those who provided statements about the raid and those who were behind allegations of improperly monitoring Taylor’s phone.

A spokesperson for the LMPD said in a statement Friday that the police department plans to work with Palmer’s attorneys and being “transparent as possible.”

“The department places the highest priority on conducting thorough and impartial investigations, and the complaints received from Ms. Palmer’s attorney are no exception. We are committed to being as transparent as possible within the confines of those limitations outlined by law of the Commonwealth.”

 Sgt. Kyle Meany, Det. Anthony James, Det. Mike Nobles, Sgt. Amanda Seelye, Det. Mike Campbell and Lt. Shawn Hoover are the officers named in the complaints.

The complaints range from allegations of evidence tampering and a failure to secure the crime scene to the alleged “reckless, deliberate and in complete disregard for the rights and safety of citizens” of Campbell—who Palmer’s attorneys say helped obtain the search warrant through false information—and Meany who commanded the PBI squad.

One other interesting (to nobody Black) complaint is the one directed at Det. James who attorneys allege falsely reported to the PIU that Taylor and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker—who had all criminal complaints against him permanently dropped earlier this week—were firing “repeatedly and indiscriminately” towards officers the night Taylor was killed.

It’s clear that Palmer has not given up on bringing all of those involved in Taylor’s death—which the FBI is still investigating—to justice.

“It can’t end here,” Palmer told CNN in a recent interview. “I’m still out here, I’m still doing what I need to do to get justice for Breonna to make sure that people do right by her.”