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Breonna Taylor, an emergency room technician who dreamed of becoming a nurse, buying a house, and starting a family was asleep in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shortly after midnight on March 13 when Louisville police officers executing a search warrant used a battering ram to break down her door.

Loud banging on the door awakened Ms. Taylor and Mr. Walker, who believed someone was trying to break into their home. When several men forced their way inside the apartment, Mr. Walker, 27, fired his licensed firearm in self-defense.

One officer was hit in the leg but is expected to make a full recovery. Mr. Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer but the charge was dismissed in May.

Police officers fired back, hitting Ms. Taylor at least five times. In a 911 call just after the shots were fired, Mr. Walker told a dispatcher that “somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.” He said she coughed and struggled to breathe for at least five minutes after she was shot. Dispatch logs show she received no medical attention for more than 20 minutes.

The police were executing a no-knock warrant, which allows police to forcibly enter people’s homes without warning. Louisville officials have since banned no-knock warrants.

The warrant was issued as part of an investigation into two men believed to be selling drugs from a location more than 10 miles from Ms. Taylor’s home. Police got the warrant to search Ms. Taylor’s home by asserting that one of the men had used her apartment to receive packages.

No drugs were found in the apartment and the police had already located the main suspect in the case before they broke into Ms. Taylor’s home, according to lawyers for Mr. Walker and Ms. Taylor’s family—underscoring that there was no need for police to break down Breonna Taylor’s door in the middle of the night.

There is no body camera footage from that night. The Louisville Metro Police Department fired Brett Hankinson, saying he “displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life when [he] wantonly and blindly fired” 10 rounds into Ms. Taylor’s home in violation of the department’s policy on use of deadly force. The other officers involved in the case—Jon Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove—have been placed on administrative reassignment. At this point, none of the officers has been charged with a crime.

We would like to thank the Equal Justice Initiative for the content. Click HERE to view the original comprehensive article.