Oprah's O Magazine puts up billboards all over Louisville demanding action in the Breonna Taylor case
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 8/10/2020, 1:14 p.m.
By David Williams, CNN
(CNN) -- Oprah Winfrey's O Magazine is putting up billboards around Louisville, Kentucky, calling for the officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor to be arrested and charged.
Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, was shot multiple times in March by police forcing their way into her apartment while executing a no-knock warrant.
O Magazine is putting up 26 billboards around the city -- one for each year of Taylor's life to amplify her story and the fight for justice in her name.
The billboard features the portrait of Taylor that will be on the cover of the September issue of O. It will be the first time that anyone other than Winfrey is on the cover in the magazine's 20-year history.
"We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice," Winfrey said in an article in her magazine announcing the billboards. "And that is why Breonna Taylor is on the cover of O magazine. I cry for justice in her name. The September issue honors her and every other Black woman whose life has been taken too soon."
The billboards urge people to "Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged" and points them to the website for Until Freedom, a social justice organization that recently moved to Louisville to focus on Taylor's case.
CNN affiliate WLKY reports that the group organized a sit-in last month on Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's front lawn.
Cameron has promised a thorough investigation into Taylor's death.
Until Freedom thanked O Magazine on social media for placing the 26 billboards and vowed to get justice for Taylor.
In a statement to CNN last month, Winfrey said she would be marching for Taylor if it wasn't for the coronavirus pandemic.
She said she would continue her fight until the people responsible for her death are prosecuted.
"It is my hope that if we continue to say her name, write her name, and let no one forget her life, the people who are responsible for killing her and those who remain complicit by doing nothing shall be brought to justice," she said.
Taylor's family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the three police officers involved in the shooting. None of the officers have been charged and only one was fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department.