Photo Courtesy of Wu-Tang is for the Children / Twitter
Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, shared on Instagram that her daughter and recent police brutality victim, Tyre Nichols, share the same birthday.
“Tyre Nichols 6/5/93, Breonna Taylor 6/5/93,” the post read, adding in the caption, “My heart is breaking all over again.”
Palmer lost her daughter on March 13, 2020, after Louisville police barged into Taylor’s home without a legal warrant. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at the officers under the assumption that they were intruders. In response, officers were unnecessarily fired
numerous times, ultimately killing Taylor, who became a staple in the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement.Activist Tamika Mallory took to Instagram to explain how difficult it was for Palmer to deal with the discovery of her late daughter sharing the same birthday as Nichols.
“Yesterday, I spent 30 horrible minutes trying to calm down Breonna Taylor’s mother and my friend, @tamikalpalmer,” Mallory wrote. “She was hysterical after learning her daughter and Tyre share the same exact birthday to the year.”
Mallory continued, “She was damn near inconsolable and the only thing that broke her mourning was me saying “sis, you are going to get sick. Please stop before you get sick.” Then I cracked a personal joke and we were able to shift the conversation. We started cussing and talking about the war to stop this shit. So many emotions in 30 minutes.”
She wrote, “This s**t is traumatizing” five times, ending it with, “It’s not ok. I’m not ok!”
Palmer thanked Mallory in the comments section.
Nichols died on Jan. 10 after five Memphis police officers beat him nearly to death after stopping him for allegedly driving recklessly on Jan. 7. Nichols was placed on life support and died three days after being hospitalized.
Those five officers were fired.