A black Louisville police officer was dismissed after he made a mocking recruiting video in which he encouraged others to “murder for free” while making fun of Breonna Taylor’s death.
Since 2018, Turhan Knight has worked as a correctional officer. On Thursday, when municipal authorities became aware of the video he uploaded online, Knight’s employment was terminated.
At the Kentucky State Fair, it portrays Knight in full gear strolling through a line of police cars as he addresses the crowd, saying, “I’d want to speak to you today about joining in, join our team to answer the call.”
Knight says in the video, “Brother, we need you,” saying, “We’re going through many ups and downs in the city, trying to mend damaged connections.”
He says again, “And brother we need you. That’s what we put on our trucks – we need backup.”
Answer the call and join a fantastic police agency, he exhorts. Whatever happened to Breonna Taylor, we murdered that b****, so forget about it.
Knight then approaches a different armoured vehicle and challenges the crowd, “Do you want to drive cars like this and fly in aeroplanes?”
Do you want to have limitless free time? Do you want the ability to provide for your family?
He asks, “Do you want to murder people and get away with it?”
Come work with the Louisville Metro Police Department. Take the call.
Following the incident, Democratic Mayor Greg Fischer referred to the footage as “hideous.”
The mayor issued a statement saying, “There is no justification for his insensitivity.” He has severely degraded Metro Corrections and the whole Louisville metropolitan government.
I sincerely apologise to Breonna Taylor’s family and to all the honest and devout workers in the Louisville Metropolitan Government, he continued.
“One individual will not taint the fantastic job we try to do for our citizens,” the statement reads.
The prison dismissed him as soon as authorities were able to confirm the video existed and saw it themselves, according to a statement from Metro Corrections.
The statement to the Courier Journal said that “Director [Jerry] Collins was appalled by the substance of the video and proceeded as swiftly as possible to terminate.”
Knight’s actions are inappropriate and do not represent the professionalism and spirit of service that we value at LMDC, according to the statement.
In the meanwhile, Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, condemned the video in a statement to WDRB.
She stated, “I believe the video is really offensive, and I’m outraged that he felt making a joke about the passing of my daughter was funny at the time.”
It keeps proving to me that the LMPD and others who support them don’t care about the crimes they committed against my daughter and still treat my family with contempt.
Knight’s termination proceedings will no longer be supported by the local police union, according to Daniel Johnson, who told the Journal that the video was “absolutely horrific” and that no one who would act in such a callous manner should wear a uniform.
Knight’s views and opinions of LMPD do not reflect those of FOP Lodge 77, he added, adding that “we believe the termination was absolutely justified and was the right decision.”
However, Knight claimed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he posted the video online after giving his two-week notice, and that Friday was already supposed to be his last day on the force.
The Journal reports that he insisted he never intended to hurt Taylor or her family and that he “has close times with the family of Kenneth Walker,” Taylor’s boyfriend who was with her at the time of the shooting, and that the video was a joke based on his feelings about how “some officers handled past situations.”
Later, over the weekend, Knight emailed the newspaper another statement in which she stated: “I should have gotten punishment, I don’t dispute that, but blatant falsehoods perpetrated against me to seem good for media reasons are simply wrong.”
He stated in the statement, “I hope that I may be forgiven, and I pray that I will.” I made a poor choice, there aren’t many excuses I can provide at this time, but I’m really sorry.
Knight continued by saying that he intends to get legal counsel to defend him in his termination hearings.
Taylor’s murder, along with those of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, among others, in the year 2020, caused anger and incited riots that reached their peak ferocity that summer.
On March 13, 2020, police performed a no-knock raid and broke into the apartment where Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was sleeping with her boyfriend.
One shot was fired by Taylor’s boyfriend at what he claimed to be intruders. 32 rounds were fired in response by three police officers, six of which hit Taylor and killed her.
Federal civil rights charges are still pending against four current and former Louisville police officers in relation to the incident.
Before and after she was slain, Kelly Goodlett, Joshua Jaynes, and current Sergeant Kyle Meany are suspected of forging a search warrant, and former Detective Brett Hankison is accused of violating civil rights by allegedly employing excessive force.
A jury cleared Hankison of the allegation of willful endangerment in March.
The other two white cops who shot Taylor were previously exonerated by a grand jury, but Hankison was accused of threatening the next apartment’s residents.
Later, a grand jury member involved in the case said that Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron only brought Hankison’s allegations of wanton endangerment before the grand jury.
Mattingly and Cosgrove were not prosecuted by the Kentucky attorney general last year because he believed both officers had a legal basis for retaliating against Walker.
However, Goodlett, 35, admitted guilt last week, claiming that she had met Jaynes in a garage few days after the shooting and that the two had concocted a lie to cover up the phoney evidence they had used to support the failed raid.
She now faces a $250,000 fine and a possible sentence of five years in jail.