Bay Area

Warrant for Raid on Breonna Taylor’s House Connected to Louisville Gentrification Plan, Lawyers Say

Published

6 years ago

July 9, 2020

Breonna Taylor’s shooting death in Kentucky was the consequence of a Louisville Police Dept. operation intended to clear out a block in western Louisville key to a city plan to gentrify the neighborhood Taylor lived in — lawyers for Taylor’s family allege in an amendment to a lawsuit filed against the city in Taylor’s death.

Taylor was killed in March when police attempted to serve a no-knock warrant to find a man they knew was already in custody. Taylor’s boyfriend, believing they were in danger, fired his gun at the door and police then wantonly shot through a bedroom window. Taylor, an emergency technician, was asleep at the time and was hit by eight bullets.

One of the three officers involved in Taylor’s shooting has been fired, but none have been arrested or charged.

Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, was charged with assault and attempted murder of a police officer but the charges were dropped.

Lawyers allege that a police unit called Place-Based Investigations “deliberately misled” narcotics investigators to believe they were targeting violent drug offenders at the house where Taylor lived in order to speed up the process for a multimillion dollar real estate development plan in the area.

“The execution of this search warrant robbed Breonna of her life and Tamika Palmer of her daughter,” attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Taylor’s family, told a Louisville newspaper over the weekend. “Its execution exhibited outrageous recklessness and willful, wanton, unprecedented and unlawful conduct.”

A representative for the mayor’s office has called the allegation “outrageous.”

According to the lawsuit, the warrants executed in the narcotics investigation on March 13 were intended to eliminate one of the “primary roadblocks” to the development, Jamarcus Glover, who was allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking.

Glover rented a home in the immediate area of the planned development, according to the lawsuit and was an ex-boyfriend of Taylor’s.

To secure the warrant on Taylor’s house, detectives alleged that they had confirmed that Glover was receiving packages there. But that was not true, according to another city agency, the lawsuit says.

That errant connection to Glover is what ultimately led to the raid on Taylor’s apartment, according to the lawsuit.

“Breonna’s home should never have had police there in the first place,” family attorneys say in the lawsuit. “When the layers are peeled back, the origin of Breonna’s home being raided by police starts with a political need to clear out a street for a large real estate development project and finishes with a newly formed, rogue police unit violating all levels of policy, protocol and policing standards… Breonna’s death was the culmination of radical political and police conduct.”

According to the Louisville newspaper the Courier Journal, Louisville PD’s Place-Based Investigations unit was created to address “systemically violent locations.”

“PBI focuses on identifying and disrupting crime place networks,” according to the police department’s website. “These networks include crime sites, but also places used by offenders that do not typically come to the attention of police. PBI will collaborate with other government and community partners to identify and eliminate violence facilitators.”

Meanwhile, “Arrest the Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor” continues to be a rallying cry on social media and at Black Lives Matter protests.

Brandon Patterson

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Oakland Post: Week of March 4 – 10, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 4 – 10, 2026

Published

5 days ago

March 7, 2026

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

2 weeks ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

3 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.