(CNN) — Activists demanding justice for the police killing of Breonna Taylor are expected to protest the 146th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
The Justice and Freedom Coalition, one of several groups organizing the protest, said demonstrators aim to shift attention from America’s most famous horse race to Taylor’s case.
“The eyes of the world are going to be on Louisville, as they are every year during the Derby. It has been nearly six months since Taylor has been murdered and there has been no justice or any information to come out,” Timothy Findley, a founder of the coalition, told CNN.
Louisville Metro Police Department officers fatally shot Taylor on March 13 while executing a “no-knock” search warrant at her apartment. Gunfire broke out after her boyfriend fired a warning shot because he thought the plainclothes officers were intruders. The 26-year-old EMT, who was unarmed, was killed in the barrage of gunfire.
Taylor’s case — along with other high-profile killings of Black people by police — helped spark nationwide protests over racial injustice this summer. Protesters want the officers involved in her death to be charged. In May, Kentucky’s attorney general was named a special prosecutor to investigate Taylor’s death and the FBI is investigating whether Taylor’s civil rights were violated.
Protesters will meet a couple hours before post time on Saturday at South Central Park, less than a mile from Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville, and begin marching there, Findley said. Organizers expect at least 2,000 people to attend, he said.
Churchill Downs said in a statement Thursday that the race would be held as planned in the hopes that it could bring the community together.
“We know there are some who disagree with our decision to run the Kentucky Derby this year,” racetrack officials’ statement asserts. “We respect that point of view but made our decision in the belief that traditions can remind us of what binds us together as Americans, even as we seek to acknowledge and repair the terrible pain that rends us apart.”
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the city supports the First Amendment rights of protesters but asked that they remain peaceful and not block traffic.
“Racial justice is a goal we all support. And we support First Amendment rights,” Fischer said Wednesday. “We just have to balance the right to protest with our essential duty to preserve public safety.”
Uniformed police officers have already began lining up in downtown Louisville, where heated confrontations between protesters and counterprotesters have been taking place since late morning.
Police will cite or arrest anyone blocking traffic, creating dangerous roadway conditions or trespassing on private property against the wishes of the property owner, the city advised Friday on its website. Anyone committing violence or vandalism will be arrested, it added.
The Kentucky attorney general’s office said on Saturday it “continues to move forward” with its investigation into the death of Taylor.
“Today, while we honor a KY tradition with the running of the Derby, we remain cognizant of the community’s desire for answers in the investigation into the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor,” Attorney General Daniel Cameron tweeted.
The-CNN-Wire
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