A billboard demanding justice for Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky., has been vandalized, according to local media reports.
Images of the billboard, first reported by ABC News, showed Taylor’s face and what appears to be a large red splatter between her eyes.
CBS affiliate WLKY News said part of the billboard was apparently coated with red paint sometime before noon on Tuesday.
Taylor, who is Black, was an emergency medical tech studying to become a nurse who was fatally shot March 13 after Louisville police burst into her home using a battering ram during a no-knock search during a narcotics investigation.
Interim police chief Robert Schroeder previously said the warrant to search Taylor’s home was in connection with a suspect who did not live there. No drugs were found.
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The billboard is one of 26 commissioned by entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey, and asks residents to “demand that the police involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged.”
It also features a quote from Winfrey, which reads, “if you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it.”
Since the shooting, Det. Brett Hankison, one of the officers involved in her death, has been fired, while two others, Jon Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, remain on administrative reassignment. No criminal charges have been laid.
Activists, including a number of NBA players and celebrities, are protesting that no criminal charges have been filed, a cause that was amplified by the international reaction to the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
— With files from Reuters.
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