LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Months before Breonna Taylor was shot to death by police officers, her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, was being investigated by the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) at a house across town on Elliott Avenue. 

At 2424 Elliott Avenue, he was investigated by the Place Based Investigations (PBI) Unit for an alleged drug operation. Claims have been made since, vocalizing suspicion on why the specific location was targeted. The attorneys representing Taylor's family have cried gentrification since there was development set for the area of blight and vacant houses. Louisville Metro Council is trying to find out if gentrification did indeed play a role there, and thus, in Taylor's death.

The earliest record shared with Metro Council in the Government Oversight Committee meeting Tuesday night shows the PBI Unit began working the street in December 2019. Council members are questioning the process that happened then, to "clean up" the neighborhood.

"We had numerous cases in that 2400 block. I'm talking, about maybe about 20 or 30 addresses on that block," Director of Louisville Metro Codes & Regulations Robert Kirchdorfer testified. "This was a problem property. Our inspectors even noted in their comments that you had, through an inspection that they thought you had, in this 2424 specifically, that they thought this was a dope house."

"I felt like all the focus was here because of the development, and so that is a problem for me," said Councilwoman Donna Purvis (D, District 5). 

Were any other blocks around town targeted for violent crime? Those testifying Tuesday didn't have a clear answer. 

"Is this the most crime-infested, most rundown block in the entire city? Like what else is special? Because it wasn't development," asked Councilman Anthony Piagentini (R, District 19).

"It's really been a hotspot, something that the community had targeted for us when we were...when we had started the choice neighborhoods planning process back in 2014," said Develop Louisville Director Jeff O'Brien.

"But nobody has yet to answer the question why this block, other than to vaguely say, it had crime. There's lots of cities, er, streets in the city, that have crime, right? But there was no objective black and white criteria that were laid down here," responded Piagentini. 

Piagentini is in favor of having police with the PBI in to answer questions in another meeting in a couple of weeks.