No police officers charged directly for role in Breonna Taylor's death

A Kentucky grand jury announced Wednesday that Brett Hankison, a former Louisville Metro Police Department detective, has been indicted on three charges of wanton endangerment after a police raid in March resulted in the killing of Breonna Taylor, an unarmed Black woman and emergency medical worker. None of the three officers involved in the raid were directly charged for their role in Taylor's death — Hankison's charge is related to firing his gun into a neighboring apartment, and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said the investigation found the other two officers were justified in their use of force.

The officers entered the 26-year-old Taylor's apartment on the night of March 13 with a no-knock warrant, which have since been banned by Louisville's Metro Council, during a narcotics investigation. The warrant was connected to a suspect who did not live at the apartment and no drugs were found inside, but police exchanged fire with Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, after bursting in, and the officers shot Taylor multiple times. (Cameron said ballistics analysis created reasonable doubt as to which officer fired the fatal shot.) Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but the case was dropped, and he maintains he fired in self-defense, thinking an intruder had broken in.

Taylor's death, along with the killing of George Floyd, sparked nationwide demonstrations against police brutality, and protesters have for months called for the officers to be charged. Early reactions to the grand jury's decision were not positive, and protesters have begun marching in Louisville. Read more at The Associated Press. Tim O'Donnell

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up