“We’re far from done,” Storm guard Jordin Canada said Tuesday during a Zoom call.
Her remarks might have applied to the Storm’s bid for a fourth WNBA title heading into the postseason, which began Tuesday with a pair of first-round games.
However, Canada was addressing the city of Louisville’s decision to issue a $12 million payout to the family of Breonna Taylor’s in a settlement of the family’s wrongful-death lawsuit.
“It’s not just with Breonna Taylor. I feel that with every situation that has come across with police brutality, I feel everyone is doing everything, but what they need to do, which is arrest the cops and charge them with murder,” Canada said. “I feel like that’s the only way that we can get justice.”
The WNBA dedicated its season to Taylor and the Say Her Name movement, which raises awareness for Black female victims of police violence.
Before every game at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, players wear warmup T-shirts with ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the front and ‘Say Her Name’ on the back.
They also wore Breonna Taylor’s name on the back of their jerseys in honor of the 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was killed by police in her home on March 13 after a botched drug raid.
After midnight, police served a no-knock search warrant on Taylor’s apartment for a narcotics investigation while Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were reportedly asleep.
Walker, a licensed gun owner who called 911 in the belief that the drug raid was a burglary, exchanged fire with three officers who responded with multiple shots.
An officer was shot and injured, while Taylor was struck at least five times and died in her hallway.
Taylor and Walker were not the target of the investigation and no drugs were found on the property.
One officer was fired and the others were assigned to administrative duties.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron as well as the FBI have launched an investigation into the officers’ conduct.
“We feel like justice has to be served,” Storm coach Gary Kloppenburg said. “It was a bad warrant. These guys were negligent going in there.”
Storm center Mercedes Russell added: “Just offering money for the death of a loved one doesn’t sit right at all for me. I don’t know how I would feel if was in the family. Obviously, they said they would do some things with police reform, but I would want more.”
As part of the settlement, the Louisville Metro Police agreed to institute sweeping reforms designed to strengthen officers’ connections to the community, reform the search warrant process and make officers more accountable and their actions more transparent.
Still many WNBA players, including Storm star Breanna Stewart, who is part of the league’s social justice council, repeated calls to arrest the officers who killed Taylor.
“My initial reactions are it’s a step in the right direction.” Stewart said. “I think that a settlement is not justice. Money is not getting justice for Breonna Taylor or her family. Those officers still need to be arrested.”
Canada added: “We’re not going to stop using our voices and doing everything that we can to get Daniel Cameron to charge these police officers for murder.”
Also
- The WNBA playoffs continue Thursday with No. 3 seed Los Angeles playing No. 7 Connecticut and No. 4 Minnesota faces No. 5 Phoenix in single-elimination second round games.
- No. 2 Seattle opens postseason play Sunday in the semifinals against the highest remaining seed with No. 1 Las Vegas matching up against the other team.