Beyoncé wrote Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Sunday demanding justice for Breonna Taylor and admonishing the top prosecutor for not taking action against the police officers who killed the 26-year-old in her home three months ago, telling him, "this is your chance to end that pattern."
In the open letter, posted on her website June 14, the singer points out that Louisville has passed "Breonna's Law" banning no-knock warrants, which police used when they burst into her home just before 1 a.m. on March 13 in a botched narcotics investigation. The officers shot the ER technician at least eight times before she collapsed and died in her hallway.
"Three months have passed," Beyoncé repeated three times, yet "LMPD's investigations have created more questions than answers." Taylor's family is still waiting for justice and have "not been able to take time to process and grieve," she told the attorney general, because all the officers involved in her killing still have their jobs.
While there have been "small steps in the right direction," it is not enough, Beyoncé stated. "Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officers Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison must be held accountable for their actions.
"Your office has both the power and the responsibility to bring justice for Breonna Taylor, and demonstrate the value of a Black woman's life," she wrote.
She urged Cameron to bring charges against the officers involved, conduct a transparent investigation into the officers' conduct and the department's response to Taylor's death, "as well as the pervasive practices that result in the repeated deaths of unarmed Black citizens."
The Kentucky attorney general's office told BuzzFeed News that it is "aware of the letter," but since "the letter makes requests related to the ongoing investigation involving the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor, we have no further comment."
Beyoncé, who has not often used her platforms to explicitly advocate for racial justice, has been speaking out publicly in the wake of George Floyd's death. At the end of May, she posted a rare video statement on Instagram demanding justice for Floyd and asking followers to sign a petition. A few days later, on June 5, the day Taylor would have turned 27, the music icon shared a portrait of Taylor wishing her happy birthday and wrote in the caption, "Justice for Breonna. Click the link in my bio to take action."
At the end of her letter, Beyoncé asked the attorney general to be different, to break the pattern "of no action" when it comes to prosecuting officers.
"With every death of a Black person at the hands of the police, there are two real tragedies: the death itself, and the inaction and delays that follow it," she wrote. "The next three months cannot look like the last three."