In the midst of a pandemic, the holidays will be extremely difficult for millions of America. However, the pain of the Taylor family is a bit different than most. After losing her daughter in March, Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, is spending her first Christmas without her daughter. During a recent interview, Palmer opened up about the gumbo emotions she feels as she celebrates Christmas.
“She was just definitely always big on getting a family together and trying to have Christmas dinner, party game night,” Palmer said.
"Here we are trying to put this together and she's not here, and it's so unreal because she's the person that does that. She's the person that everybody counts [on] because everybody wants to see Breonna.”
Taylor was infamously killed by police as she spent time with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, inside of her apartment. As the couple was watching a movie, a group of officers stormed into her apartment with weapons in search of Taylor's ex-boyfriend, who did not live there. Unaware of who was entering the apartment, Walker fired a warning shot that hit an armed officer. In response, law enforcement fired more than a dozen shots that killed Taylor, who was unarmed. In the aftermath of Taylor's death, no officers were directly charged with her death.
“We're still fighting nine months later. We're still dealing with everything that went wrong that night and nobody willing to stand up to that,” Palmer said.
“As a city, as a nation, we'll never heal until people are held accountable. I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon. It definitely won't for me, because I can't stop fighting.”
In spite of the darkness that she has endured throughout the year, Palmer has remained positive about the holidays and the future. Above all else, she is moved that millions have come together in support of her family.
“It's beautiful to watch people come from all over the world to stand together for a person a lot of them never even knew,” she said.
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