The mural covers the side of a vacant building in lower Denver near 28th and Walnut. The face of Breonna Taylor is nestled on a bed of red roses. Her gaze is directly into the eyes of the viewer and denotes a strength of character.
"Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment on March 13, 2020, when white plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove of the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations.[7] Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was inside the apartment with her when the officers knocked on the door and then forced entry.
[9] Officers said that they announced themselves as police before forcing entry, but Walker said he did not hear any announcement, thought the officers were intruders, and fired a warning shot at them.[10] According to officials, it hit Mattingly in the leg, and the officers fired 32 shots in return.
[11][12] Walker was unhurt but Taylor was hit by six bullets and died.
[13][14][15] According to police, Taylor's home was never searched.[10][16]
Walker was initially charged with assault and attempted murder of a police officer, but the charges eventually were permanently dropped. On June 23, 2020, the LMPD fired Hankison for blindly firing through the covered patio door and window of Taylor's apartment.[17] On September 15, the city of Louisville agreed to pay Taylor's family $12 million and reform police practices.[18] On September 23, a state grand jury indicted Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment for endangering Taylor's neighbors with his shots.[19] None of the officers involved in the raid have been charged in Taylor's death.[20] Cosgrove was determined to have fired the fatal shot that killed Taylor.[21] On October 2, 2020, recordings from the grand jury investigation into the shooting were released.[22] Two of the jurors released a statement saying that the grand jury was not presented with homicide charges against the officers.[23][24] Several jurors have also accused Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and the police of covering up what happened.[25][26][27]
The shooting of Taylor by police officers led to numerous protests that added to those across the United States against police brutality and racism.[28] When a grand jury did not indict the officers for her death, further civil unrest ensued." (excerpted from (
visit link) )
"Spray Their Names Aims to Paint Murals That Honor Lives Lost and Amplify Marginalized Voices
Art is a responsive media — even when a global pandemic and weeks of protests aren’t simultaneously occurring. Many artists are like sponges, soaking everything up until its squeezed out of them. In Denver, and all over the country, the urgency of Black Lives Matter has been a major squeeze on artists, and the resulting artwork has been profoundly inspiring.
One group has decided to put a name to their efforts, coining their new movement Spray Their Names (STN). “Spray” denotes the way they create art — through spray painting detailed murals. “Their Names” are the “oppressed, neglected, and silenced individuals” as well as the voices of activists and community leaders. Primarily, the silenced individuals are black and brown people who have been murdered by police. The lead artists of the project are Hiero Veiga and Thomas “Detour” Evans.
STN was initially sparked after Veiga and Detour painted a mural of George Floyd on East Colfax following days of protests near Denver’s Capitol. That one was followed closely by a mural of Breonna Taylor painted by Veiga, Detour and Just. The third, a portrait of Aurora resident Elijah McClain, sealed the series as part of an ongoing project. At that point, Veiga and Detour started bringing in other artists like Chelsea Lewinski, who painted Atatiana Jefferson on the wall near McClain’s portrait, behind Epic Brewing in RiNo." (excerpted from (
visit link) )