Page 27 - Florida Sentinel 9-11-20

News From The Nation
New Interim Police Chief: Louisville 'Has Got Work To Do' To Restore Black Residents' Faith
New Photos Reveal Officer In
Breonna Taylor Raid May
Have Worn A Bodycam
Officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor in March may have had bodycams on, ac- cording to a new report from VICE News.
For months, police officials in Kentucky have claimed -- along with then-police chief Steve Conrad who said in a press conference -- that there was no bodycam footage, according to WDRB.
“I want to start by letting you all know that we have no body- worn video cameras to share with you from this morning’s shooting. This incident was re- lated to the execution of a search warrant by members of our Criminal Interdiction Division, and some of the officers as- signed to this division do not wear body-worn video systems,” Conrad said in March the night after Taylor was killed.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fis- cher later fired Conrad be- cause the officers were allegedly not wearing bodycams, calling it an "institutional failure" that "will not be tolerated."
But in crime scene photos ob- tained by VICE News, officers are seen either with bodycams or vests that had holders for cameras.
Fischer originally backed up Conrad's assessment, telling VICE in July that no officers had bodycams on.
LOUISVILLE, KY. — Yvette Gentry, a former Louisville Metro Police deputy chief, will take over as interim chief of the embattled police force Oct. 1 and says she is ready to "move the needle forward."
The 50-year-old Louisville native who graduated from Central High School and Uni- versity of Louisville, will be the first woman and the third African American to serve as chief of the Louisville Metro Police. She retired from the de- partment in 2014.
Interim Chief Robert Schroeder plans to retire at the end of September after 4 months in the role, Mayor Greg Fischer announced Monday.
In an emotional speech, Gentry spoke to "all of you that urged me to take this po-
INTERIM POLICE CHIEF YVETTE GENTRY
sition and try to move the nee- dle." And she reached out to West End residents who have been at the heart of more than 100 days of protest over racial injustice in the wake of the March 13 shooting of Bre- onna Taylor by police.
"I'm not here just to help you unboard your beautiful buildings downtown," she said. "I'm here to work with you to unboard the community that I served with all my heart in west Louisville, that was boarded for 20 or 30 years."
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