Transcript of Katelyn Hall’s Mother, Rebecca Hall, Speaking at Community Gathering with Cooper and Friedman Civil Rights Lawyer, Hal Friedman
Written by Cooper and Friedman on May 20, 2026
Rebecca Hall:
Good morning everyone. First off, I would like to thank Bishop Lyons and everyone for allowing me to speak today. I am here with my attorney, Hal Friedman, and I would like to wish all the mothers a happy Mother’s Day. My name is Rebecca Hall and I am Katelyn Hall’s mother. I would like to start off by telling you a little about Katelyn.
Katelyn was my whole world. Katelyn was intelligent, being the salutatorian of her Southern High School class of 2015, and graduating Bellarmine with her bachelor’s in sociology and minor in psychology. Katelyn was kind, compassionate, empathetic, and she had the biggest heart. She left a lasting impression on anyone she encountered. When she walked into a room, her energetic personality commanded attention. All these characteristics were evident in everything she did. Katelyn consistently put the needs of everyone around her before her own, no matter what she was going through.
This leads me to why I’m here to talk to you today. Katelyn suffered from bipolar 2 disorder. She had depression, suffered from PTSD, and anxiety. Katelyn was diagnosed with all this about five years ago. She was in therapy and was taking medication for mental health for most of those five years.
Katelyn’s mental health started spiraling around November of 2024 and she struggled a lot over the last year and a half. Her doctors added medication to help with the symptoms of the bipolar disorder, which helped some, but Katelyn called on an almost daily basis just telling me how bad she felt and how life just… she just did not want to be here anymore. Over the last year and a half, Katelyn was either ready to take on the world or ready to leave it.
Katelyn never got a break from herself, but pushed through it daily. She was having a hard time getting her medications because of authorizations were needed for insurance and then she lost her insurance around mid-February due to switching jobs. One medication she needed was $2,000 and the other was $700. Katelyn could not afford these, so she was without her medication for around two months at the time of her death.
On March 27th, Katelyn’s day started out okay. I talked to her around noon that day and she sounded like she was in a good mood. At 7:33 that night, I got a few text messages from Katelyn and, from prior experiences with her, I knew that she was going to attempt to harm herself or try committing suicide. I immediately called her, she didn’t answer, so I knew I instantly had to jump in the car and head her way.
On the way to Katelyn’s apartment, I called her cousin who lived with her. The cousin and her sister checked on her and informed me that she had locked herself in the bedroom and they could not get in. Because her cousin was physically there, I told her to call 9-1-1 and let them know that Katelyn was trying to commit suicide and we needed help. At some point, Katelyn made her way to her bathroom inside of her bedroom. This was not the first or second, but the third time calling 9-1-1 for help for Katelyn. Katelyn walked away from both of those prior calls.
Katelyn did not walk away on March 27th.
My world ended that night because two LMPD officers shot and killed Katelyn. My baby deserved help, she did not deserve bullets. I know Katelyn did not want to die that night, she was just wanting help as she had before.
That night, as I walked into the apartment, I was shocked at the number of people who showed up because this amount of people had never showed up on the two prior calls. I was there that night. Once I got there, I walked about halfway down her hallway where I see an officer with a gun pulled and another with a Taser pulled. Again, something else that I had not happened on previous calls. I remember telling someone that I was Mom thinking that someone was going to ask me to talk to her. I believe I was only in the apartment for three to four minutes before she was fatally shot. I heard five gunshots and I saw her head hit the floor.
I believe these two officers need to be held accountable for their actions that night. Katelyn’s family and I need justice for her senseless killing.
How do we place a call to 911 for a mental health check and my daughter loses her life? Why was the Taser pulled but not used? Why was there no physical force used? Why were guns the first option? And why does LMPD shoot to kill instead of shoot to stop? Why aren’t critical response people sent to these mental health calls?
There are so many questions and very little answers. Katelyn was not the first call for mental health and she definitely will not be the last. So many people have or will lose their health insurance this year and these people will lose access to their therapist and much-needed medication. When future calls are made to 911 for mental health or wellness checks, critical response teams need to show up, not LMPD.
On March 27th, those two LMPD officers made a decision that altered the life of so many people by killing Katelyn. There needs to be something done to protect all the future people who make that call. There were so many options that night and I feel these officers were scared of my Katelyn, my baby, and their only option was to kill her. These officers either don’t need to be protecting our streets or they need more training for their positions. No mother should ever have to bury their child because someone makes a 911 call for a mental health check and LMPD shows up and, instead of getting help, they get killed.
Tomorrow we are having a balloon release for Katelyn at the Big Four Bridge at 2pm. If you would like to show up, we are requesting everyone to bring green balloons for mental health awareness. Again, happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there, and I’m going to turn this over to my attorney Hal Friedman.
Hal Friedman:
Thanks Becky, that’s hard to follow. So just as briefly as I can, my name is Hal Friedman and I am an attorney here in Louisville. My purpose here today really is to support the family and Becky. And, by the way, this is a beautiful and important assembly. I’d like to thank Brother Maxwell and the Bishop and everyone here for honoring Katie and giving us this opportunity.
Obviously, this is a very tragic situation and we all want to take our time to investigate properly so that we all know precisely what we’re doing and where we’re going. There were some beautiful statements today made by a lot of people about Mother’s Day and I’d like to express those same statements but, unfortunately, for Becky, this is going to be the toughest Mother’s Day she’s ever had. So, please give her your support.
The Louisville Metro Police are doing an investigation of what occurred here. That’s required under their policies and procedures, including under their public integrity unit, and they’ll probably do some additional internal investigations. We’re going to follow those as well as we can because, ultimately, the purpose is to get to the bottom line as to why what happened, did happen.
Now, I’ve learned a lot about Katie since I first met Rebecca and, I’ll tell you, she was an impressive young lady. She was a Kentucky Governor’s Scholar and, I’ll tell you right now, that’s not easy to be. She suffered from some health concerns and that’s certainly true. One of the tragedies here is that, as Becky said, she was killed not long after she had lost access to much needed mental health medication. And that’s a big concern for all of us, not just in this scenario but because, you know, mental health is as important as physical health. And, you know, Katie did not have access to that medication and it led her down a dark path.
But, she was actively seeking help. She was not getting the help that she needed. Instead, as Becky said, to put it bluntly, she got bullets. And, this can’t be the way this city responds to these types of crises. She had committed no crime. She was searching and reaching out desperately to her family to try to get some help.
The conclusion was that this was ultimately a homicide, okay, at the hands of the police. Now, we are not going to prejudge the conduct of the police. We’re not going to, you know, make any assessments or decisions until we get the full report and we’ve conducted our own investigation. I will say this, though, that there are numerous reforms that have been requested of the city and its public officials as a result of other matters which we’re all aware of, including, of course, the Breonna Taylor matter and other matters that simply have not been implemented, and I think it’s time for the local government to take responsibility for these issues and make those reforms that our citizens need.
So, for today, I’m just here to support Becky for the most part, and, you know, we’re hoping we’re going to get a full, complete, fair, reasonable investigation from the LMPD. We’re going to take those actions that we feel are necessary to honor Katie and her memory and hopefully bring some sort of peace or solace to the family.
Now, I’m going to end by saying this. In court, I never get to say Amen. Okay. That’s not something you typically say to the judges. But, today, I’m going to say, because I’ve heard it a bunch, I’m going to say Amen. Thanks to all of you all for being here and supporting Rebecca and supporting Katie’s memory, and I hope everyone will continue to do so. If it’s okay to say it, what you’re saying there is for everyone continue to say her name. Thank you.
MC:
Bianca Self. She’s the aunt of Breonna Taylor, which the reform supposedly had taken place with Breonna’s case.
Bianca Self:
Good morning, family. Sorry for my tardiness, but apparently daycare was closed this morning, so here we are.
Rebecca, I’m so sorry for your loss, and I’m going to continue to pray for your your your peace, your peace of mind, your journey, because it’s not easy. You know, wholeheartedly, I’m here for you, whatever you need me to do.
And it’s just going to take us back, right. So here we are taking what we thought was a few steps forward, but we somehow keep taking these steps back. I just wanted to come… well, my intention today was to come and formally invite the community to Breway Day. And I think it’s important that I speak on Breway Day because we have an impacted mother in here that had to find out the hard way that this city does not provide proper support for impacted families, as you have seen with Breonna Taylor’s family.
And that leads us to Breway Day. Breway Day is significant to Breonna Taylor. It’s because it was finally a city that came together and realized the injustice that happened to Breonna. So that’s why Breway Day is significant. May 28th, May 28th, you heard a man on a 9-1-1 call crying, calling for help. Just like you heard Rebecca and you hear her and you are receiving this message from her.
We don’t need sympathy. We don’t need pity. We need people to show up.
And Rebecca shouldn’t have to show up. She shouldn’t have to show up here today, we should be showing up for her. That’s the problem, y’all. I come here because I shouldn’t have to come here and invite you to somewhere. We’ve been doing this for six years. Six years, my niece was murdered in this city. And we’ve done did a hell of a fight, passing laws, passing legislation, but we can’t do that if we don’t come together and bridge the gap. Now, I’m not responsible for Breway Day, but I want to take ownership of it because I’m not going to let my niece’s legacy die in vain, honey. And until this city understands that and finds a way to communicate with us, it’s not even communicating. There’s not even communication. I can’t even say that the city communicates with us, because they don’t.
Just like you see Rebecca, you see that lawyer that’s sitting next to her, that’s her representation and it should not have to be this way. This is what I want you guys, I don’t want to use you as an example, but I want people to see this. Like this is what she’s going to have to deal with just to get any type of answers about what happened to her daughter when we all watched it.
Where are the officers? Where’s the transparency when it comes to our people? Now May 28th, I need everybody to show up. I have special guests coming from out of town. Impacted families need your support. So if you have a non-profit, if you have any type of youth event, this is not about us. It’s about our community. There is a community that gets ignored because we choose to stand up and advocate for injustice.
And it’s not right. It’s just simply not right. It’s simply not right. And it is an attack on black America right now. I don’t know if y’all are paying attention, but we shouldn’t have to tell y’all these people are racist. We shouldn’t have to tell y’all that.
Breway is a community that is black led and we take care of ourselves. Because guess what? From 2020, we have built resources. We have built non-profits. We have built youth programs. And we all need your support. We can’t do it by ourselves. We’re grassroots. We’re working class citizens. We’re not looters, we’re not rioters. We’re nurses. We’re lawyers. We’re mothers and fathers. I have a 13-year-old in this JCTS system, so I can speak on it anytime. I am an ER technician, so I can speak on what’s going on in this community, because I’m there. I’m witnessing it. And until we do better by each other, it’s always going to be this way.
So I’m going to pass this little tablet around. If you can help out in any way, shape, or form, please. I’m always open. I’m approachable. Yeah, let’s get there together. Like Breway.