Only one of the three Kentucky police officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor has been charged, the Kentucky Attorney General said Wednesday afternoon. Taylor was killed in her sleep by Louisville police officers on March 13 when Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove served a no-knock warrant at her home.
AG Daniel Cameron revealed shortly after 1:15 p.m. ET that now-former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison has been indicted on three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment in the death of Taylor. Notably, this is not a verdict of any kind, as that would come at the end of a trial. Cameron’s announcement is simply related to prosecutable evidence available to merit charges.
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Taylor was killed this past March, when the three officers of the Louisville Police Department served a no-knock warrant at her home. However, the officers had the wrong residence, as they were at Taylor’s house with her boyfriend Kenneth Walker — neither of whom were suspected criminals. When Walker heard the officers attempting to break down their door, he believed them to be intruders, so he retrieved 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 appears to be the only officer involved with the shooting who was fired from the Louisville Police Department. In his dismissal letter, LMPD Chief Rob Schroeder wrote: “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.”
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer followed up by telling the public: “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.”
In a recent development, it was revealed that the City of Louisville has agreed to pay Taylor’s family a $12 million in a wrongful-death lawsuit settlement. Fischer spoke at the time and added that the city would also be taking necessary measure to ensure tragedy’s like this do not happen again. “My administration is not waiting to move ahead with needed reforms to prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again,” he said, per the NY Times. “When you know what the right thing to do is you do it. Why wait?”
