Two white police officers who fired into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker, will face no charges for her death because their use of force was justified, but a third will be charged with the wanton endangerment of her neighbors, the state attorney general said on Wednesday.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced the Louisville grand juryâs decision at a news conference as protesters against racial injustice and police brutality massed on city streets.
Former Detective Brett Hankisonâs indictment for wanton endangerment in the first degree represents the lowest level of felony crime in Kentucky and carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison.
Benjamin Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing the Taylor family, said it was âoutrageousâ that none of the officers would be criminally charged for Taylorâs death.
Taylor, 26, was killed in front of her armed boyfriend shortly after midnight on March 13 at her Louisville apartment after Hankison and his two colleagues forced their way in with a so-called âno knockâ warrant.â
The two other officers, Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, were not charged because they were justified under Kentucky law in returning fire after Taylorâs boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at them, wounding Mattingly in the thigh, Cameron said.
âThere is no doubt that this is a gut-wrenching, emotional case,â Cameron, a Black Republican, said at a news conference.
Hankison fired his weapon 10 times. Some of the bullets traveled through Taylorâs apartment into adjacent apartment three, where a man, a pregnant woman and a child were at home.
There was âno conclusiveâ evidence that any of Hankisonâs bullets hit Taylor, Cameron said.
Organizers of the protests against police brutality that have become a daily occurrence expressed frustration at the outcome.
âTonight, tempers may flare,â said community organizer Reece Chenault, 40. âPeople are going to be sad and I think you are going to see a lot of tears with folks who are marching.â
About 400 protesters wound their way out of downtown Louisvilleâs Jefferson Square Park and marched through the streets chanting, âOut of the homes, into the streets!â
âWANTON MURDER,â LAWYER SAYS
âIf Brett Hankisonâs behavior was wanton endangerment to people in neighboring apartments, then it should have been wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylorâs apartment too,â Crump said. âIn fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder!â
Ahead of the announcement, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced a 72-hour curfew for the city beginning at 9 p.m.
âI urge everybody to choose peaceful and lawful protest,â Fischer, a white Democrat, said shortly before the announcement.
The three officers involved in the raid knocked on Taylorâs apartment door and announced their presence outside, which was corroborated by a neighbor who witnessed the arrival, Cameron said. Getting no answer, they âbreached the door,â he said.
Mattingly entered first, and at the end of a corridor saw Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, with Walker pointing a gun.
Walker fired, injuring Mattingly in the thigh. Mattingly returned fire, and his colleagues began shooting soon after, Cameron said. Hankison fired 10 bullets, Cameron said.
Six bullets hit Taylor, Cameron said, contradicting reports she had been hit five times. Ballistics investigators found only one shot, fired by Cosgrove, was deadly, Cameron said.
In June, the Louisville Metro Police Department fired Hankison with Interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder writing that Hankison âdisplayed an extreme indifference to the value of human lifeâ when he âwantonly and blindly firedâ into Taylorâs home.
The department reassigned Mattingly and Cosgrove to administrative duties.
Louisville police obtained the warrant to enter Taylorâs apartment from a judge as part of an investigation into a drug ring at another house elsewhere in Louisville. They told the judge that they believed that one of the men suspected of selling drugs had used Taylorâs apartment to receive packages.
Taylor had previously dated a suspected drug seller but had severed ties with him, according to her family.
She and Walker, were in bed when police broke down her door with a battering ram shortly after midnight, the familiesâ representatives have said.
Walker has been charged with attempted murder. His lawyer has said there is evidence the bullet in Mattinglyâs thigh was shot by one of his colleagues, not by Walker, but Cameron disputed this on Wednesday.
Images of Taylor have become a familiar sight at ongoing protests against police violence in cities across the United States. Last month, television mogul Oprah Winfrey featured an image of Taylor on the cover of O, the Oprah Magazine.
Louisville has agreed to pay $12 million to Taylorâs family to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit, Mayor Fischer announced earlier this month.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
