Hundreds sit on Brooklyn Bridge in Breonna Taylor protest
Protests continued for another night on Friday in New York – and around the country – over a grand jury's decision not to charge Louisville, Kentucky, police officers in Breonna Taylor's death.
Hundreds marched through Brooklyn from the Barclays Center to the Brooklyn Bridge, where they sat and refused to move for over an hour, CBS New York reports.
Demonstrators are angry and exhausted over the grand jury's decision.
"This is extremely traumatizing," said protester Sophie Michel. "I have been out here since June, almost every day on the streets, marching for my Black life to show people that I matter, that it could be me, it could be him, it could be him, it could be any Black face that you see in this crowd."
"America at large will not stand by and allow a Black woman to be murdered and have no consequences," protester Kimberly Bernard said.
Friday's rally was in solidarity with protests in Louisville, where even larger demonstrations are planned for the weekend. The city's police chief is urging armed militia to stay away.
"Many of them say they are coming to help us. Let me be clear: that is not help we need. That is not help we want," said Rob Schroeder, interim police chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department.
Taylor, an EMT, was killed in March in a botched drug raid by Louisville Metro Police, in which officers entered her home with a no-knock warrant and fired off more than 30 rounds, hitting her multiple times.
A grand jury indicted one officer in relation to shooting into her neighbor's apartment — but no officers were charged for their role in Taylor's death. The decision was announced on Wednesday.
In Kentucky on Friday, a crowd surrounded Breonna Taylor's family at a press conference. Her aunt, Bianca Austin, wore Taylor's emergency medical technician jacket while reading a message from Taylor's mother, who was too distraught to speak.
"I was reassured Wednesday of why I have no faith in the legal system, in the police, in the law that are not made to protect us Black and brown people," Austin said.
Protests took place on Friday in cities from Oakland to Boston.
