Breonna Taylor attorneys: Police supplied ‘false information’ on ‘no-knock’ warrant

The attorneys representing Breonna Taylor’s family in their lawsuit against Louisville Metro Police say officers provided “false information” in the affidavit used to secure a no knock search warrant for Taylor’s home.

Authorities say the warrant police used to enter Taylor’s apartment connected her with a narcotics suspect, Jamarcus Glover, who was arrested in a separate raid that night at a house 10 miles away.

A detective wrote in an affidavit that he’d seen Glover leave Taylor’s apartment about two months before with a USPS package before driving to a “known drug house.” The detective wrote that he then verified “through a US Postal Inspector” that Glover had been receiving packages at Taylor’s address, reports the Courier Journal. 

A U.S. postal inspector in Louisville, however, told WDRB News that Louisville Metro Police didn’t use his office to verify that Glover was receiving packages at Taylor’s apartment.

Postal inspector Tony Gooden told WDRB that a different agency had asked in January to look into whether Taylor’s home was receiving suspicious mail, but that the office had concluded it wasn’t.

“There’s no packages of interest going there,” Gooden told the news outlet.

Police records from a search of Taylor’s apartment after her death show that officers collected “Jamarcus C. Glover mail matter” from inside Taylor’s purse, along with a letter from him found in the east bedroom.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney known for his involvement in high-profile cases of black Americans killed in shootings, wrote in a news release that Gooden’s statement “directly contradicts what the police stated in the affidavit to secure a no-knock warrant for her home.”

“Today, Louisville postal inspector Tony Gooden asserted that the LMPD did not use his office to verify that a drug suspect delivered packages to Breonna Taylor’s address, which directly contradicts what the police stated in the affidavit to secure a no-knock warrant for the home.”, said Crump

“This revelation validates what we already knew: This young woman was brutally and unjustifiably killed by Louisville police, who supplied false information on the warrant they used to enter her home unannounced. Gooden further stated that ‘no packages of interest were going there.’ We will continue to demand transparency from the Louisville police on behalf of Breonna’s family.”

Louisville police have declined to talk further about the incident, saying it is under internal investigation.