The Killing of Breonna Taylor, Part 1

[0] I got him.

[1] What's going on, man?

[2] You know, I'm stopping you for?

[3] Man, when you turned on here, on the Dixie.

[4] In the spring of 2019, this video started circulating online.

[5] Give me a favorite for your hands on standby.

[6] It showed the police in the city of Louisville in Kentucky, making a traffic stop.

[7] I got him.

[8] The driver was a black teenage boy.

[9] Don't hop out?

[10] They tell him me to get out of the car now.

[11] He happened to be his high school's homecoming king and a multiple scholarship winner.

[12] You don't have any weapons on you, do you?

[13] I don't.

[14] No drugs?

[15] Nope.

[16] He had borrowed his mom's car to go buy a slushie at the local store.

[17] Turn around with your hands and couple him?

[18] Spread your feet.

[19] I don't even did anything.

[20] And he suddenly found himself being pulled out of the car.

[21] Put hands on your back real quick.

[22] Being handcuffed.

[23] Being handcuffed.

[24] Being handcuffed your fist thing.

[25] For the offense of making a white turn.

[26] And this video that went viral online was far from the first time that something like this had happened in Louisville.

[27] There's a call now for a review of Metro Police policies, claims of racial profiling on the part of the white police officer.

[28] So in response, the Louisville Police Department enacted a series of reforms.

[29] These changes are meant to reflect our department's values and commitment to fair professional interactions with the public.

[30] We have work to do in terms of building trust and legitimacy with the people that we have sworn to serve and protect.

[31] And yet, those very reforms set into motion.

[32] a raid that a few months later killed a 26 -year -old woman.

[33] We want justice.

[34] We want justice.

[35] Justice for whom?

[36] Her name was Brianna Taylor.

[37] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Wobaro.

[38] This is a daily.

[39] Brianna Taylor.

[40] Brianna Taylor.

[41] Over the past five months, Brianna Taylor.

[42] The name Brianna Taylor has become a national rallying cry for those demanding changes in American police.

[43] Kill us or Brianna, Taylor.

[44] Protests and celebrities speaking out.

[45] We feel for it and we want justice.

[46] Say her name, Brianna Taylor.

[47] Beyonce is demanding justice for Brianna Taylor.

[48] But unlike George Floyd, Eric Garner or Rayshard Brooks, there's no video capturing the final moments of her life.

[49] Do you know Rihanna tell a story, her whole story?

[50] Today, a Times investigation, pieces of the story.

[51] together what actually happened to Brianna Taylor.

[52] In part one, Rukmini Kalamaki tells the story of how police ended up at her door.

[53] It's Wednesday, September 9th.

[54] All right, let's get started, okay?

[55] Rukmini, where does your reporting start for this story?

[56] So I met my colleague, the documentary filmmaker, Yoruba Ritchin, in Louisville.

[57] So can you start off by telling me your names and what you're really?

[58] is to Brianna.

[59] And we spent the next couple of weeks speaking to the people who knew Brianna Best.

[60] My name's Tamika Palmer.

[61] I have two daughters.

[62] Her mom.

[63] Brianna Taylor.

[64] Janaya Palmer.

[65] My name is Kenneth Walker.

[66] Her boyfriend.

[67] My name is Priyana Flakes and I am Brianna's cousin.

[68] Her cousins.

[69] I'll say our relationship was more like sisters, twin cousins, pre and bird.

[70] Her very best friends going all the way back to her childhood, her coworkers.

[71] And in combination with the thousands of pages of documents that I was able to acquire about her case, what comes across is that this is a young woman who was dealt, I would say, a pretty tough hand in life.

[72] What was your reaction when you found out that you were pregnant?

[73] How old were you?

[74] I was, like, in disbelief, I was 16 years old, though.

[75] She was born to a teenage mom.

[76] I just knew I had to be a better person then at that point.

[77] So I took it on.

[78] Her dad was convicted on a murder and drug charge when she was just six years old and was sent to prison for the rest of her life.

[79] What was she like as a child?

[80] Brianna was a good kid.

[81] She was easy.

[82] Even just as a young kid, she just was smart.

[83] But what you also see amidst the challenges of her early life, is a person who was trying to push beyond the limitations of her circumstances.

[84] She was one of those people.

[85] She made a plan and she went.

[86] That was it.

[87] Like, it has to be done this way.

[88] And I'm like, okay.

[89] Just seeing how she was wanting to be successful, she kind of like drove that into my head.

[90] Like, this is what we're going to do.

[91] This is how you're going to do it.

[92] And I'm going to show you how to do it.

[93] We spoke to one of her.

[94] oldest friends, who said that her mom, when they were children, would not let her go to sleepovers at all except if the sleepover was at Brianna's house.

[95] Why?

[96] Because Brianna was considered the responsible one.

[97] She was the one among their little group of friends who made sure that the other girls got to school on time if there was a sleepover, who made sure that they did their homework.

[98] She seemed to be taking almost an adult role in her immediate circle.

[99] Even as a kid, I could remember her being seven years old.

[100] saying to my mother, let me check your blood sugar.

[101] When she was very young, she started to show an interest in medicine and in health care and in helping other people.

[102] Her mom describes how when Brianna learned that her grandmother had an insulin problem, she wanted to prick her grandmother's finger with a needle and draw blood so that she could test her blood sugar level.

[103] She thought that was interesting, and she kept on asking her grandmother if she could do that.

[104] Like, leave her alone.

[105] But my mother would add her stick her finger in, and she was like, she was so pummel.

[106] up to do it and help her do her insulin.

[107] I'm like, oh, my God.

[108] We see that in ninth grade, she begged her mom to give her permission to take the bus and to go start working at a local fast food joint after school.

[109] Her friends say that they never really knew her without a job.

[110] She taught me stuff my own people, my own siblings, my own mother didn't teach me. The family I came from, really not supportive.

[111] So I used to make little Facebook statuses like, Who's going to come to my graduation if I had it, even though I know y 'all don't really miss with me. Bree would be like, don't worry about them.

[112] And as long as I'm by your side, that's all that matters, because I'm going to be there.

[113] Brianna is the first person in her family to graduate from high school, and she then goes to college.

[114] Tell me how you met.

[115] We met, I guess, on Twitter.

[116] In college, she starts a banter on Twitter with another college student.

[117] kind of like flirting on the timeline, I guess, so to say.

[118] His name was Kenneth Walker.

[119] He went by Kenny to all of his friends.

[120] And she went to University of Kentucky, and I went to Western Kentucky.

[121] And they start a sort of emoji -filled, flirtatious Twitter banter that by 2016 evolved into the beginnings of a romance and of a relationship.

[122] I kept on telling her, I don't want to be friends no more.

[123] But we can be if we have to be, but I don't want to be.

[124] It was an on -again -off -again relationship.

[125] But what's clear in this back -and -forth is that Kenny seemed to really have identified her as the person that he wanted to be his life partner.

[126] It seems like when nobody else was there for me, she was always there.

[127] And it was Brianna that wasn't 100 % sure about him.

[128] Some days it was, yeah, let's marry and have a kid.

[129] And the other days, it's like, no, let's be single and live kid -free lives.

[130] And so it was a million times where I say I'm not messing her anymore ever again.

[131] And I'm sure she said the same thing several times.

[132] But everybody we spoke to described him as somebody who genuinely loved her.

[133] We can be friends and we can be everything else too.

[134] That's the goal when you're trying to be with somebody or love them and whatever.

[135] You want to be friends with them also.

[136] And that's rare.

[137] So if you come across that, I think you should try to take advantage of it.

[138] What we now know is that a few months after she started dating Kenny in 2016, she also starts seeing another man. His name is Jermarchus Glover, and by all accounts, he's in many ways the opposite of Kenny.

[139] Jermarchus is a twice convicted drug dealer.

[140] He was sentenced in 2008 when he was 18 years old in Mississippi, his home state, for drug trafficking.

[141] And later in 2014, he moves to Kentucky, he's charged again for drug possession.

[142] And he would spend the next several years in and out of jail.

[143] And it bears noting that he seems to enter her life at what was ostensibly a low point.

[144] She had started college, but she dropped out because she felt homesick and was really missing her family.

[145] She got her EMT certification and began working as a first responder, riding ambulances.

[146] But a year into that job, she quit.

[147] On social media, she says that she was discouraged by the 16 -hour shifts and by the low pay.

[148] And pretty soon into her relationship with Jamarcus, his problems become her problems.

[149] And this is the first time that you see the police coming and knocking on the door of Apartment 4 at 3003 Springfield Drive.

[150] Priyana, is this your place?

[151] Yes.

[152] And they came because of a favor that she had done for him.

[153] Okay.

[154] So, what's your name, young name?

[155] Jamarcus.

[156] What's that?

[157] Jamarcus.

[158] Jamarcus.

[159] What's your last name?

[160] Glover.

[161] Glover.

[162] So what happened is she had rented a car.

[163] Her own car was apparently in the shop.

[164] So she had rented a car from Enterprise Rent a Car.

[165] And Jamarcus Glover asked her for the keys.

[166] She handed over the keys.

[167] He then handed them to a third person, a man. And a couple of hours later, that person was family.

[168] found dead, slumped over the wheel of the car.

[169] His body was riddled with bullets, and on the floorboard of the car, and in the console, they found several baggies of drugs.

[170] What I need to know is what's going on with the rental car and the person that was in that car.

[171] I don't know who was in the car.

[172] She never used the car.

[173] Mm -hmm.

[174] Mm -hmm.

[175] The person that ends up dead at the wheel of the car is a man that's known to them only by his nickname Rambo.

[176] and in fact he's the brother of one of DeMarcus Glover's associates, a member of what turns out to be a criminal drug syndicate and that man had gone to jail on multiple occasions with DeMarcus.

[177] Are you all into the game?

[178] Oh no. I mean, come on now.

[179] I mean, I was now.

[180] Right, that's what I'm saying.

[181] Let's just be honest right here, okay?

[182] I was.

[183] They ain't got nothing to do with the gangs.

[184] I'm not saying gang.

[185] I said the game.

[186] Are you working?

[187] How did he make his money?

[188] How do you make your money?

[189] Oh, no, no. I have not been in the street before, no, I mean.

[190] Are you working now?

[191] No. Where you work at?

[192] I don't work right now.

[193] I just left my job over the weekend.

[194] Where were you?

[195] Yeah, man, slow on the truck.

[196] What were you doing for them?

[197] EMT.

[198] I saw the police notes, and they concluded that Brianna really had.

[199] had no foreknowledge of how this car was going to be used, and that Jamarcus also did not appear to be aware that this man was going to get killed.

[200] All right, man. Hey, hey.

[201] Hey.

[202] Take care of you, you're going to be right.

[203] All right.

[204] You're going to be ready, lady.

[205] Be careful, all right.

[206] We'll be right back.

[207] Rukmini, when you talk to Brianna's family and her friends, did Jamarcus come up?

[208] And what did they say about him?

[209] You know, this was really hard to get at because when we spoke to.

[210] to her mother, her cousins, her best friends, you ask about Jamarca's Glover and either they stop making eye contact with you or they say to you that they don't want to talk about him or they say to you that they don't know him.

[211] And this relationship is something that we have essentially uncovered through documents.

[212] This was clearly something that those who love her did not want to talk about.

[213] The closest I got was one of her oldest childhood friends, somebody who's known her since she was in elementary school.

[214] And all she would say to me was, I didn't like him regarding Jamarcus.

[215] But what we see in the documents that we've amassed is that in the next four years, she was on again and off again with Kenny and with Jamarcus.

[216] And in the periods that she's with to Marcus, he repeatedly entangles her in his problems and in his run -ins and dealings with police.

[217] This is a man who is in and out of jail.

[218] And he asks her to pay his bail twice in 2017.

[219] And then later in 2019, you see her paying bail for another man, another accused drug dealer, who was a friend of Tumarcuses and who was believed to be part of this criminal syndicate alongside him.

[220] That same year, 2019, that's the year that the video of the Homecoming King getting pulled over by Louisville Police goes viral.

[221] Do you me favor, grab your phone, and you walks to get on six, because I'm telling you, or it's going to fall out when you get out of the day.

[222] And when he gets pulled over for the infraction of making a wide turn, things very quickly escalate.

[223] He's pulled out of his car by the white police officer.

[224] Yeah, we're allowed to pat you down for weapons.

[225] Mama, they pat me down.

[226] Yeah, we're allowed to do that.

[227] He's on the phone with his mom, and the cops begin searching his car for drugs.

[228] Ma 'am, please stay over here.

[229] His mom eventually shows up.

[230] Stay over there, please.

[231] If you approach my traffic, stop, I will take you.

[232] And in the conversation that ensues, another officer begins to explain to the mom the larger strategy of what they're trying to do with these traffic stops.

[233] If it's a wrong term, give him a ticket, you don't have to bring a dollar time.

[234] That's not what we're out here for, okay?

[235] We're a violent crimes unit.

[236] First, we're not narcotics.

[237] Okay, so listen, just, will you listen to me?

[238] Because I wanted, okay.

[239] What they would do is they would identify an area, that had a high crime rate.

[240] And then they would flood that area with police officers who would pull people over for minor offenses, for turning without signaling, for having a broken taillight, for making a white turn.

[241] And once the people were pulled over, they would search their cars for drugs or for other contraband and essentially look for evidence of more serious offenses.

[242] I appreciate y 'all being out here for violent crimes.

[243] My son is not violent, nothing.

[244] No one said he was a violent crime.

[245] There's no reason for him to be out of the car handcuffed right now.

[246] Can you tell me how to pick out violent crime?

[247] As a result, it created a lot of bad will between the city's police department and the city's black population.

[248] Black people who were just going about their daily lives were getting pulled over and aggressively searched when they were doing nothing more than, like, the teenage boy in the viral video, going to the store to get a slushy in his mom's car.

[249] Hey, sir, here's your ID back?

[250] You've got a court October.

[251] second for improper turning at 7 p .m. 6 .00 -W.

[252] You understand any reason why you stop?

[253] All right, have a wonderful day.

[254] So it just so happened that the week that the video of the Homecoming King went viral, that week coincided with a visit to the department of a policing expert named Robin Engel.

[255] She's a professor at the University of Cincinnati, and she has been promoting a different approach to policing that has actually really been successful in born fruit in a couple of communities, including Cincinnati and Las Vegas.

[256] When the video caused the uproar that it caused, the police chief pulled her aside in a conference room and said to her, how can we do better?

[257] And what was her answer?

[258] Her answer was, instead of flooding a large area with police, you go hyper -focused and you look at a micro -location that has been the locus of repeat crime.

[259] A storefront, an abandoned warehouse, a city block, an apartment building.

[260] And you ask yourself, what is it about that specific location?

[261] What are the parameters of that location that are making it conducive to repeat crime?

[262] And then once you identify that place, you begin putting a lot of police resources into monitoring that microlocation.

[263] And she told him about how this method of policing had dramatically reduced violent crime as much as 70 to 80 percent in one particular neighborhood.

[264] in Cincinnati.

[265] So when the police chief hears about this, he naturally got excited.

[266] And by December of last year, the police department had created its own squad that was going to target crime through this new method.

[267] So the next thing that happens is they identify the area of the city that has the highest crime and they end up honing in on a street called Elliott Avenue, the 2400 block of Elliott Avenue, basically one city block.

[268] So it was on this point.

[269] Blanc that they erected a pole camera in January.

[270] What they saw is that within an hour of erecting the camera on January 2nd, between 15 and 20 cars had stopped in front of 2424 Elliott Avenue.

[271] 2424 Elliott Avenue was one of four trap houses or drug houses that were being operated by Jamarcus Glover.

[272] And this is how Jamarcus basically ends up in the crosshairs of this new squad that was created for the purpose of reforming police conduct in the city.

[273] That same day, this is January 2nd, in addition to seeing the 15 to 20 cars that stopped in front of this house, these are presumably customers who are coming and going, buying drugs, they see between 5 and 6 p .m. that evening a Chevrolet and Paula pull up.

[274] They run the plates and they learned that that car is registered to Brianna Taylor.

[275] Hello, this is a free call from The next day, the 3rd of January.

[276] An inmate at Louisville Metropolitan Corrections Department.

[277] Jamarcus Glover is arrested, and he makes a series of recorded phone calls to Brianna Taylor from jail.

[278] Peter.

[279] I'm going to sleep.

[280] I was asleep.

[281] I'm so sorry.

[282] In one of those recorded calls, you hear Jamarca's Glover asking her to arrange his bail by contacting another.

[283] other associate of his.

[284] You say he was already back at the trap and then I talked to him again just a minute ago to see if you had contact, you know.

[285] They couldn't pose a bond until one.

[286] Yeah, I'm waiting now.

[287] And in these calls...

[288] Yeah.

[289] I'm just waiting here.

[290] I think I'm about to be sick.

[291] I feel like I got hit by the first.

[292] Like, give me some rest in your big.

[293] You can sense the intimacy between them.

[294] You're working.

[295] What?

[296] You don't want me anything.

[297] I didn't say that.

[298] They need to be.

[299] I had no rest, like, none.

[300] Yeah, I know.

[301] I haven't really been sleeping for really bit.

[302] Like, I keep waking up every other hour type of shit.

[303] Uh -huh.

[304] When you around, I stress a lot.

[305] When you around, I stress more.

[306] Man. Because I just always be worried about you.

[307] I love you.

[308] I'm going to call and try to make sure this shit been found life.

[309] I don't know.

[310] I woke up.

[311] I just call out there.

[312] Okay.

[313] I love you too.

[314] I love you.

[315] I call.

[316] You back and let you know.

[317] Okay.

[318] So DeMarcus gets bailed out.

[319] And in the course of the next two months, this newly created squad continues to surveil the trap house at the 2400 block of Eliot.

[320] They end up putting a GPS on Jamarcus's car, and that GPS shows that he makes repeated trips in January between the trap house and Brianna Taylor's apartment.

[321] They also send police to watch her apartment, and on one day in mid -January, they photograph Jamarcus going into her apartment and emerging from it with a package in his hands and then driving straight back to the trap house.

[322] On another occasion, in February, they film her and him, arriving in the same car at the trap house.

[323] He is seen getting out of the driver's side door.

[324] She's seen getting out of the passenger side door.

[325] He goes into the trap house.

[326] He comes back out, and they drive away together.

[327] But the thing that the police had missed as they were carrying out this intense surveillance was the new arc of Brianna Taylor's life that had been building for some time.

[328] This is messages from January.

[329] It says, this year I'm coming for everything.

[330] She said, I'm speaking it into existence.

[331] And she sent two emojis with the fingers crossed and hearts.

[332] She was coming for everything she wanted this year.

[333] 2020 was her year.

[334] After leaving her job as an EMT, she got back on her feet and she got a job as an emergency room technician.

[335] She picked up a second shift and she was now working basically two jobs at this ER and at another hospital.

[336] And you see that her life, according to her social media posts, is really on this positive trajectory.

[337] She's bought herself a new car.

[338] She's going to save up for a home.

[339] And crucially, in mid -February, she appears to break up for good with Jamarcus Glover.

[340] And the reason I say for good is there's evidence that's come out since then that indicates that she actually blocked him on her cell phone.

[341] These two here.

[342] They might as well get married.

[343] Do you want to be my baby daddy?

[344] Yes.

[345] Can we go have my baby?

[346] Yes.

[347] Win today.

[348] And from what we know...

[349] Everything was like really good.

[350] It was great.

[351] She seems to commit to Kenny.

[352] It was a whole lot of marriage talk and baby talk.

[353] We even had baby names and everything.

[354] Kenbury.

[355] Just for the record, that was the girl name.

[356] It's Kenny and Remix.

[357] I like that.

[358] So they're very much launched on.

[359] on what looks to be a serious relationship.

[360] But even as these sweeping changes are occurring in Brianna Taylor's life, the police are barreling forward on their investigation, and they believe by March that they have enough evidence to hit five locations that are crucial to Jamarcus Glover's criminal syndicate.

[361] Four of them are on Elliott Avenue and around Elliott Avenue.

[362] These are the trap houses that he operated.

[363] and the fifth is the home of Brianna Tanner.

[364] Tomorrow on the Daily.

[365] What happened during the police raid?

[366] We'll be right back.

[367] Here's what else you need to another day.

[368] The chief of police in Rochester, New York, resigned on Tuesday, amid growing outrage and widening investigations into the death of Daniel Prude by officers in his department.

[369] Prude suffered.

[370] after police placed a hood over his head and pressed him into the ground for two minutes.

[371] A death that Rochester officials did not disclose for months.

[372] The police chief, Loran Singletary, has denied that the officers involved did anything wrong.

[373] And...

[374] It's an unprecedented moment.

[375] It's an historic pledge.

[376] Nine vaccine makers are coming out saying that they will stand with science.

[377] In an unusual public pledge, the CEOs of nine drug companies, including Pfizer, Moderna and Asterozenica, said that they would not distribute a vaccine for the coronavirus until it had been thoroughly vetted for safety and effectiveness.

[378] With increasing public concerns about the processes that we are using to develop these vaccines and even more importantly, the processes that will be used to evaluate these vaccines, we saw it as critical to come out and reiterate our commitment, that we will develop our products, our vaccines, using the highest ethical standards.

[379] The statement appeared to be a response to claims by President Trump that a vaccine would be ready before election day, raising fears that the president may rush the process and undermine public trust in an eventual vaccine.

[380] That's it for the daily.

[381] I'm Michael Babaro.

[382] See you tomorrow.