LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Metro Council committee said it still has unanswered questions about the source of the raid in which Breonna Taylor was killed, even after they questioned two city officials about the topic Tuesday night.
The Metro Council Government Oversight and Audit Committee, which has been investigating the Taylor case and ensuing protests since July, sought testimony from the city's Director of Codes and Regulations and Director of Develop Louisville about the city's efforts to revitalize and fight crime and drug trafficking on Elliott Avenue in the Russell neighborhood.
Jamarcus Glover, Taylor's ex-boyfriend, rented a home on Elliott Avenue and became the target of a drug investigation in late 2019 that ultimately led to raids at and around his home just after midnight on March 13. Even with Glover already in custody, police raided Taylor's home at around 12:40 a.m.
In July, attorneys for Taylor's family assigned a different reason to the raid at Glover's home and the one that killed Taylor.
In an amended lawsuit filed then, they claimed her fatal shooting at the hands of Louisville police was the end result of a land grab by the city using officers to "target" and remove people and homes in the Russell neighborhood, including Taylor's former boyfriend, to revitalize west Louisville with a large real estate development project. The attorneys alleged that Taylor's death stemmed from a "political need" to clear out homes on Elliott Avenue, centered in an area where for years the city has hyped a multimillion-dollar revitalization plan called "Vision Russell."
While eight homes on Elliott Avenue were demolished and cleared by the city in the weeks before Taylor's death in March, one of the remaining holdouts on that street was the rented house of Glover, according to the claim.
The home formerly rented by Jamarcus Glover on Elliott Avenue in the Russell Neighborhood. (WDRB Photo)
A spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Fischer said the allegations are "outrageous" and "without foundation or supporting facts."
On Tuesday, the council committee tried to unravel the truth.
"We've heard allegations about what may or may not have happened, and so our job is to find out if those allegations or true or if they're not true," said Council President David James, D-6.
City officials testified they worked together with a new Louisville Metro Police unit, known as the Place-Based Investigations (PBI) Squad, with the goal of decreasing crime there. Jeff O'Brien, the director of Develop Louisville, considered it one of the most crime-ridden spots in Louisville. Robert Kirchdorfer, the director of Codes and Regulations, pointed out there have been a half-dozen homicides there in about as many years.
"This was a bad block," he testified. "There was a lot of illegal activity going on."
The two were repeatedly asked about the lawsuit's claim that the city was trying to clear the neighborhood to pave the way for a large-scale development. Both testified that no such development was ever planned.
However, O'Brien clarified that a nonprofit was interested in this block.
"That group was very interested in, you know, doing again that permanent affordable housing," he said.
The council committee also learned those city officials weren't working with that LMPD PBI Squad on other similar anti-crime initiatives in other areas of the city. That revelation, and others, left Councilman Anthony Piagentini, R-19, with a question he felt wasn't sufficiently answered: Why Elliott Avenue?
"Why, and what criteria was applied?" Piagentini asked the room. "Sure, it may not be a conspiracy related to some developer who had some clandestine for-profit thing. Nobody accused that here. There were questions to vet that out and get clarity, but nobody has yet to answer the question of why this block other than to vaguely say it had crime. There's lots of streets in this city that have crime, right? But there's no objective black-and-white criteria that were laid down here that explained why Elliott Avenue and not Pick-Your-Other-Avenue-in-this-City that has problems, nor are we clear with what the goal is."
The committee plans to bring in more city workers for testimony about the topic soon, including someone with the LMPD's PBI Squad.
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