Breonna Taylor: 1 Officer Involved in Kentucky EMT’s Death to Be Fired

One of the officers involved in the death of a Black woman, Breonna Taylor will be fired. According to ABC News, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated that LMPD Chief Rob Schroeder has begin the process of terminating Louisville Metro Police Officer Brett Hankison after he along with two other officers murdered the Kentucky EMT.

“Unfortunately, due to a provision in state law that I very much would like to see changed, both the Chief and I are precluded from talking about what brought us to this moment, or even the timing of this decision,” Fischer said in a statement. Hankison was just one of three plainclothes officers who were serving a no-knock warrant on March 12, but they had the wrong residence, as they were at Taylor’s home with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, neither of whom were suspected criminals. When Walker heard the cops trying to bust down their door, he pulled his licensed gun and fired one shot. Hankison then shot 10 rounds into the house, hitting Taylor eight times as she slept, killing her. She was 25 years old at the time of her death.

Hankison’s termination letter was reportedly shared with local journalists, which stated he violated procedure when he opened fire at Taylor’s apartment. “I have determined you violated Standard Operating Procedure … when your actions displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life when you wantonly and blindly fired ten rounds into the apartment of Breonna Taylor,” the letter stated.

Schroeder has also said that Hankison was previously disciplined in 2019, for “reckless conduct that injured an innocent person,” but did not go into specifics. The two other officers involved in Taylor’s death, Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, have faced no disciplinary action at this time. However, they have both been reassigned to administrative duties while the incident continues to be investigated.

An incident report from the night of Taylor’s death was released, but caused more anger for citizens, as it was said to be “virtually blank.” The Louisville, Kentucky, metro council has since passed an ordinance banning no-knock warrants. The vote passed with a unanimous 26-0 in favor of the new law. Following the news, Fischer tweeted that he planned to sign the law “as soon as it hits my desk.”