Louisville is bracing for an anxiously awaited decision on whether any police officers will be charged in the March 13 shooting death of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old unarmed Black woman fatally shot by police who has become a national symbol of racial injustice.
On Tuesday, Mayor Greg Fischer issued two executive orders. One declared a state of emergency due to the potential for civil unrest, which allows him to exercise such emergency powers as enacting a curfew.
The second one restricts access to five downtown parking garages and on-street parking.
If large protests do erupt, police won’t use tear gas unless approved by the chief or deputy chief, or if gunfire erupts, police said, among several policy reforms enacted since the shooting of Taylor.
The streets were eerily empty after police erected barricades Tuesday in a 25-block perimeter to limit car traffic, including around a park that’s been home to nearly four months of protests over the fatal shooting.
The protests in the city have remained largely peaceful, occasionally marred by violence, tear gas, and pepper balls.
