Breonna Taylor’s statue has been vandalized and smashed, just 2 weeks after it was installed in an area in downtown Oakland. A manhunt has been launched for those behind the vandalization of the statue which had an inscription that read “Say Her Name Breonna Taylor.” It is speculated that there might be a surveillance video that will help police find the culprit, but so far no one has been named a suspect. 

The sculptor, Leo Carson has already announced that he’s starting a GoFundMe page to pay for the repairs. The furious sculptor said; “This vandalism is an act of racist aggression, and it shows why sculpture and art matters.

I made this sculpture to support the Black Lives Matter movement and while I’m overcome with rage and sadness at their cowardly act, their vandalism will make her even more potent.” Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American medical worker, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020, when white plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations. 

According to police, Taylor’s home was never searched. On June 23, 2020, the LMPD fired Hankison for blindly firing through the covered patio door and window of Taylor’s apartment. On September 15, the city of Louisville agreed to pay Taylor’s family $12 million and reform police practices. 

On September 23, a state grand jury indicted Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment for endangering Taylor’s neighbors with his shots. None of the officers involved in the raid has been charged in Taylor’s death.