Coffin full of manure and dirt found at NC police station amid Breonna Taylor protests
The Asheville Police Department in Western North Carolina says a coffin full of manure appeared outside its headquarters Wednesday night during protests over the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.
“Protesters have left a casket full of dirt and what we believe to be cow manure at the front door of APD,” police tweeted.
A city official told McClatchy News Thursday morning the coffin’s content was likely just dirt, and police had not yet determined what would become of it.
The coffin appeared around 8:30 p.m. when the department reported 150 protesters were gathered outside the building where the police and fire departments are located in downtown Asheville. The group later began marching in the road, causing traffic backups, police tweeted.
One person was hospitalized after being assaulted during demonstrations outside the city and county municipal building, police said.
No one had taken credit for the casket delivery by early Thursday.
The discovery came just days after the Asheville City Council approved a budget that cuts $750,000 from the police department. The money will go toward homeless outreach, community engagement and other measures, McClatchy News reported.
Asheville Chief of Police David Zack told TV station WLOS the coffin is just the latest example of “threatening imagery” officers and elected officials in the city are being subjected to, including tombstones left at homes.
“You are looking to incite violence against police,” Zack said of the coffin in a tweet.
News of the stunt prompted thousands of responses on Twitter, with some suggesting it was hog manure and others saying it was a reference to police “planting evidence.”
Many questioned why officers brought the container inside the station, noting it could have been rigged with something dangerous.
“The police were attacked with a planter,” one person tweeted.
“I’m all for this, but I just wanna know who had access to a casket and manure at such short notice. I wanna save their number for emergencies,” another tweeted.
“Oh, the absurdity,” wrote another Twitter user. “Things just get stranger and stranger, but people’s responses get sillier and sillier.”
Protests took place nationwide Tuesday after a grand jury in Kentucky decided not to bring charges against Louisville police officers in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman. The grand jury concluded the white officers “were justified in using force to protect themselves after they faced gunfire from her (Taylor’s) boyfriend,” according to the Associated Press.
Two police officers were wounded during protests overnight in Louisville but are expected to survive, the AP reported.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 9:08 AM with the headline "Coffin full of manure and dirt found at NC police station amid Breonna Taylor protests."