A grand jury on Wednesday decided to indict only one Louisville officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor, charging him with three counts of wanton endangerment for shooting at a neighbor’s home during the botched March 13 raid.
Former cop Brett Hankison, who lost his job in June, was one of three officers who fired their weapons that night, but none of his bullets actually struck Taylor, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a news conference.
Some of those bullets traveled through an adjacent apartment and nearly struck three people who were there, including a pregnant woman, he said.
It was Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly who fired the fatal shot that killed the 26-year-old EMT that night during a chaotic shootout that began after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot officer Myles Cosgrove in the leg. Neither Mattingly nor Cosgrove was charged with any crime.
“The use of force by Mattingly and Cosgrove was justified to protect themselves,” Cameron said, without explaining how Taylor was hit six times despite not being armed. Walker, meanwhile, was not struck.
The attorney general also said Wednesday that officers did knock and announce their presence before forcing their way into the apartment, contradicting multiple witnesses and Walker’s account.
The grand jury decision caused immediate anger on social media and among numerous anxious demonstrators who had gathered in Kentucky’s largest city to hear the highly anticipated announcement.
“Justice has NOT been served,” tweeted Linda Sarsour, of the activist group Until Freedom.
Attorney Ben Crump, who represents Taylor’s family, called the decision “outrageous and offensive.”
“If Brett Hankison’s behavior was wanton endangerment to people in neighboring apartments, then it should have been wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylor’s apartment too,” he wrote on Twitter. “In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder!”
Taylor, who died within two minutes of being shot, became a face of nationwide protests against police killings of Black people, with her name ringing out alongside George Floyd’s and many others’ at protests across the country.
The plainclothes officers have long insisted they identified themselves, but Walker and his neighbors said they never heard any announcement. Walker has said that he thought burglars were breaking in and fired a single “warning shot” before the cops unleashed a barrage of bullets.
“Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker said in a 911 call following the shooting.
More than three months after the killing, Hankison was fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department, which said he “wantonly and blindly” 10 rounds in Taylor’s apartment. Hankison has appealed his firing; Mattingly and Cosgrove were not disciplined beyond their administrative reassignment.
Just days ago, Taylor’s family settled a civil wrongful death lawsuit with Louisville officials for $12 million, the largest amount the city has ever paid over an officer shooting someone.
Cameron’s highly anticipated announcement led Louisville to declare a state of emergency beginning Monday to ensure the city has necessary “staffing to provide for public safety services,” a sign that that the indictment would disappoint many and trigger mass demonstrations.
The attorney general urged the public to remain peaceful and focus on the facts in the case.
“The decision before my office as the special prosecutor in this case was not to decide if the loss of Ms. Taylor’s life was a tragedy,” he said. “The answer to that is unequivocally yes.
“I understand that Breonna Taylor’s death is part of a national story, but the facts and evidence in this case are different than others. … If we simply act on emotion or outrage, there is no justice,” he added. “Mob justice is not justice. Justice sought by violence is not justice. It just becomes revenge.”
Cameron, who’s Black, refused to detail the racial makeup of the investigating team or the grand jury, saying it would be “inappropriate” to share such information given the scrutiny the case has drawn.
His office took over the criminal investigation into Taylor’s death in May, after local prosecutor Tom Wine recused himself from the case, citing a conflict of interest. The FBI is investigating Taylor’s killing separately, though the agency shared evidence with Cameron’s office, including a crucial ballistics report.
If convicted, Hankison could face up to five years in prison for each of the three wanton endangerment counts against him.
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