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1 Dead After Man Shoots Into Crowd at Breonna Taylor Protest Site
Video footage showed a man firing more than a dozen shots at a park in Louisville, Ky., where demonstrators were protesting Ms. Taylor’s shooting death by the police in March.
Austin Ramzy and
A fatal shooting in Louisville on Saturday night added a grim note to weeks of protests against police violence and particularly against the killing there in March of Breonna Taylor, an African-American emergency room technician shot to death by police in her home.
The shooting victim was identified as Tyler Gerth, 27, of Louisville. Mr. Gerth was a photographer who had frequented the protests and documented them with his camera for weeks, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.
The accused shooter was identified in an arrest citation as Steven Lopez. He has been charged with murder and first-degree wanton endangerment, according to the citation.
He had been a participant in the protests and had repeatedly been asked to leave by other protesters “due to his disruptive behavior,” officials said at a news conference on Sunday. Mr. Lopez is in police custody at a hospital, officials said.
Chief Robert Schroeder said Mr. Lopez had been arrested “a couple of times” in the past several weeks.
Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville said that Mr. Lopez had shot no one else on Saturday aside from Mr. Gerth. Mr. Lopez was wounded in the leg by gunfire from bystanders at the park who were defending themselves, according to his arrest citation.
Videos posted online showed a man standing on the edge of Jefferson Square Park firing more than a dozen shots that sent protesters scrambling for shelter among tents and park benches. The police cleared the park to investigate the shooting, and protesters will no longer be allowed to camp or set up tents at Jefferson Square Park, said Amy Hess, chief of public services.
“We just felt the situation that culminated with last night’s shooting has become too dangerous to allow this type of activity to continue any longer,” Ms. Hess said.
It has been the city’s policy since before the protests began to prohibit camping in the park, but Ms. Hess said that policy had been intentionally overlooked in order to allow protesters to “come together to demand change.”
But when violence broke out in the camp, the tents made it especially difficult for law enforcement to discern what was happening, she said.
“It’s a safety issue at this point,” Ms. Hess said.
Louisville has been a center of the protests against police violence following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.
Mr. Floyd’s death renewed focus on Ms. Taylor, 26, who was shot and killed by Louisville police officers who were serving a search warrant at her apartment. Ms. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been in bed when officers entered after midnight. The police were executing a “no-knock” warrant, which allows them to enter without identifying themselves. The police have said they did knock and identify themselves, an assertion Ms. Taylor’s relatives dispute.
During the encounter, Mr. Walker fired his gun, hitting an officer in the leg, and the police opened fire, hitting Ms. Taylor at least eight times. The warrant was issued as part of a drug investigation but no drugs were found in the apartment.
The Louisville police have dismissed one of the officers who opened fire, Brett Hankison, saying he violated their policy on the use of deadly force by “wantonly and blindly” firing 10 shots in Ms. Taylor’s apartment. The Louisville City Council has also voted to ban no-knock warrants, a measure known as “Breonna’s Law.”
Austin Ramzy is a Hong Kong reporter, focusing on coverage of the city and also of regional and breaking news. He previously covered major events around Asia from Taipei and Beijing. More about Austin Ramzy
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