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On the night Breonna Taylor was killed by police in 2020, her mother, Tamika Palmer, said she waited for answers for nearly 10 hours before someone informed her of her daughter's death.
On a new episode of Red Table Talk streaming on Facebook Watch, Tamika Palmer, her sister Ju'Niyah Palmer and her boyfriend Kenny Walker joined hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Willow Smith and Adrienne Banfield Norris to talk about the events of March 13, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was in her apartment with Walker when police entered her apartment around midnight on a no-knock warrant looking for a suspected drug dealer. Walker, believing it to be an intruder, fired one shot and the police responded by firing over 20 rounds, shooting Taylor six times and killing her.
After the shooting, Walker was arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer and assault, and the charges were later dropped after the case brought widespread outrage.
While Walker was being taken to jail that night, Tamika was at her daughter's apartment trying to find answers.
She explained on the new episode of Red Table Talk that upon arriving at the apartment complex, the street was flooded with police officers. After telling an officer who she was, "this officer tells me that two ambulances went through there and that I needed to go to the hospital, and so I do."
After nearly two hours, Tamika was told that Breonna was never on record for being taken to the hospital.
She returned to the apartment complex to find officers "laughing and joking around," she said, and body camera footage from an officer that night showed several officers smiling and talking in the parking lot. "Again, I tell them who I am and why I'm there, and so they tell me to hang tight, that a detective would come over and talk to me, which took about 45 minutes to another hour."
Norris asked Tamika when she found out that Breonna had passed. "It wasn't until about 11:30 a.m., and mind you we had been out there since 1 a.m.
"The detective comes back over and says it won't be much longer that we'll be able to get in there, and so by this time, I'm pissed, like I'm screaming at him, like, 'why won't you tell me where Breonna is? I need to know where Breonna is,' and he just looks at me and says, 'Well, ma'am, she's still in her apartment,' and so I...I knew what that meant," Tamika said.
She later learned through a news broadcast that it was the police who shot her.
"To leave there, and still not know what happened was insane," she said tearfully. "The detective gave me a card to call, and I immediately started calling because I couldn't understand how I was there for over 12 hours and never knew."
The episode walks through the emotions and events that took place for Kenny and Ju'Niyah as well, before discussing the family's fight for justice, which is still taking place today.
In August, four former Louisville police officers—Joshua Jaynes, Brett Hankison, Kelly Goodlett and Kyle Meany—were charged by federal authorities with violating Taylor's civil rights.
According to the Department of Justice, Jaynes and Meany were charged in one indictment, which accused them of creating and approving a false search warrant that resulted in Taylor's death. Hankison was also charged "for firing his service weapon into Taylor's apartment through a covered window and covered glass door," and Goodlett was accused of conspiring with Jaynes in order to create the false search warrant and "to cover up their actions afterward."
In March, Hankison was found not guilty of state charges. In August, Goodlett pled guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy, and she currently awaits sentencing.
Still, the events surrounding Taylor's death are refuted by many, and her death, along with the death of George Floyd, who was killed two months later, sparked global protests against racial injustice and police brutality.
"I don't think I've ever gotten a chance to grieve," said Tamika. "It turned into this huge ordeal for simply trying to figure out what happened to her. It's like we're the only people in the world saying she didn't deserve it, and you're fighting the whole world and nobody's listening."
The full episode of Red Table Talk with the family of Breonna Taylor is streaming on October 12 at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT on Facebook Watch.
Newsweek reached out to a representative for Red Table Talk for comment.
About the writer
Emma Mayer is a Newsweek Culture Writer based in Wyoming. Her focus is reporting on celebrities, books, movies, and music. ... Read more