Louisville police officers cleared of criminal charges in Breonna Taylor death

By Bryan Woolston and Jonathan Allen

 

People react after a decision in the criminal case against police officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot dead by police in her apartment, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., September 23, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - Two white policemen who fired into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker, will not be prosecuted for her death because their use of force was justified, but a third was charged with endangering her neighbors, Kentucky's attorney general said on Wednesday.

 

Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced the Louisville grand jury's decision at a news conference as protesters against racial injustice and police brutality massed in the streets of Kentucky's largest city.

 

Former Detective Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, an offense that ranks at the lowest level of a 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 "outrageous" that none of the officers would be criminally charged with causing Taylor's death.

 

Taylor, 26, was killed in front of her armed boyfriend shortly after midnight on March 13 inside her Louisville apartment after Hankison and his two colleagues forced their way in with a search warrant.

 

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 Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at them, wounding Mattingly in the thigh, Cameron said.

 

"There is no doubt that this is a gut-wrenching, emotional case," Cameron, a Black Republican, said at a news conference.

 

Governor Andy Beshear called on Cameron to release all evidence in the case so that the public could better understand the outcome of the investigation.

 

"Everyone can and should be informed," Beshear said. "Those feeling frustration, hurt - they deserve to know more."

 

Hankison fired his weapon 10 times. Some of the bullets traveled through Taylor's apartment into adjacent Apartment No. 3, where a man, a pregnant woman and a child were at home.

 

There was "no conclusive" evidence that any of Hankison's bullets struck Taylor, Cameron said. The grand jury indicted him for wantonly placing the neighbors in danger," Cameron said.

 

Organizers of the protests against police brutality that have become a daily occurrence expressed frustration at the outcome.

 

"Tonight, tempers may flare," community organizer Reece Chenault, 40, said. "People are going to be sad, and I think you are going to see a lot of tears with folks who are marching."

 

Hundreds of protesters wound their way out of downtown Louisville's Jefferson Square Park and marched through the streets chanting, "Out of the homes, into the streets!" Local television news footage showed police in riot gear and face shields forming into lines.

 

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's voice broke with emotion during a press conference on Wednesday while discussing the grand jury decision to indict one of three white police officers involved in the March killing of Breonna Taylor, saying, "I understand that as a Black man how painful this is."

 

'WANTON MURDER,' LAWYER SAYS

"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," Crump said. "In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder!"

 

Ahead of the announcement, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced a 72-hour curfew for the city beginning at 9 p.m.

 

"I urge everybody to choose peaceful and lawful protest," Fischer said.

 

Despite having a warrant that allowed them to enter the premises unannounced, the three officers involved in the raid knocked on Taylor's apartment door and announced their presence outside, which was corroborated by a neighbor who witnessed the arrival, Cameron said. Getting no answer, they "breached the door," 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 struck Taylor, he said, contradicting reports she had been hit five times. Ballistics investigators found only one shot, fired by Cosgrove, was fatal, Cameron said, adding that medical evidence showed that she likely died from that bullet "within a few seconds to minutes."

 

In June, the Louisville Metro Police Department fired Hankison with interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder writing that Hankison "displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life" when he "wantonly and blindly fired" into Taylor's home.

 

The department reassigned Mattingly and Cosgrove to administrative duties.

 

In obtaining a warrant as part of an investigation of a drug ring, police told a judge they believed that one of the men suspected of selling drugs had used Taylor's 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 families' representatives have said.

 

Louisville has agreed to pay $12 million to Taylor's family to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit, Mayor Fischer announced earlier this month.

 

(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta, Nathan Layne in Westport, Connecticut, Makini Brice in Washington, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Brad Brooks in Lubboc, Texas; Writing by Jonathan Allen and Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-24

 

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19 minutes ago, webfact said:

Despite having a warrant that allowed them to enter the premises unannounced, the three officers involved in the raid knocked on Taylor's apartment door and announced their presence outside, which was corroborated by a neighbor who witnessed the arrival, Cameron said. Getting no answer, they "breached the door," he said.

 

Mattingly entered first, and at the end of a corridor saw Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, with Walker pointing a gun.

Sounds reasonable to me lets  be  honest  many of these  people  getting shot are  up to no  good  anyway, drug  dealers , wife  beaters, if they were half  decent  most of this  would  never  happen.

22 minutes ago, webfact said:

'WANTON MURDER,' LAWYER SAYS

"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," Crump said. "In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder!

Yeah maybe they should  just ask these  lowlifes if  they would  please  surrender to the  Police when convenient  just  like  Thailand instead  eh.

25 minutes ago, webfact said:

Benjamin Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing the Taylor family, said it was "outrageous"

That criminals  with  guns actually  are  the root  cause  of  all of this?

19 minutes ago, bodga said:

Yeah maybe they should  just ask these  lowlifes if  they would  please  surrender to the  Police when convenient  just  like  Thailand instead  eh.

There were no drugs found, so why "low lifes"??

17 minutes ago, bodga said:

That criminals  with  guns actually  are  the root  cause  of  all of this?

_{No drugs were found, and I thought it as everyone's "right to be armed " to defend there home????}

Despite all the lies spread in the immediate aftermath, witness testimony proved that the officers correctly executed their search warrant and only fired after being fired upon.

The problem, this year, is that every fatality involving the police is being cynically exploited to inflame passions and advance a particular narrative before anyone bothers to check the facts. The actual truth of an individual incident no longer matters to the Democrats because they believe the entire system to be systematically racist - even if these particular police are innocent it doesn't matter because all police are guilty.

Luckily, the court system does not work that way (yet). A lot of these prosecutions are set in motion for political reasons and, even in cases of obvious wrong-doing such as George Floyd's death, prosecutors are setting charges so high that no court will be able to convict on that basis.

Bringing Murder One charges suits a prosecutor's political needs but will ultimately undermine trust in the justice system and result in more chaos in Democrat cities, and more black businesses getting burned down by white BLM protesters, when the charges are inevitably thrown out.

 

Edited September 23, 20205 yr by donnacha

15 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

No drugs were found, and I thought it as everyone's "right to be armed " to defend there home????

You have a right to be armed. You don't have a right to shoot at uniformed police officers after they have announced themselves and lawfully entered your home.

 

As per usual, BLM is full of it. The media fans the flames. Honesty and objectivity get thrown out the window.

 

And for what? To be categorically wrong almost every single time? 

30 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

_{No drugs were found, and I thought it as everyone's "right to be armed " to defend there home????}

Police  announced themselves and didnt have to, drug  dealer

Remember: 

 

The narrative was that police were serving a no-knock warrant and entered the wrong house, unannounced. 

 

The reality is that they were serving a lawful warrant on the correct house, and announced themselves, and only when nobody answered the door did they enter by force, whereby the boyfriend shot at police. 

Hope it doesent get out of hand tonight the core issues of this will be addressed early next year when we have a qualified president in office 

4 minutes ago, Tug said:

when we have a qualified president in office

what makes  him unqualified, he was voted in, whether you  like  him or  not.

3 minutes ago, Tug said:

Hope it doesent get out of hand tonight the core issues of this will be addressed early next year when we have a qualified president in office 

 

Its already getting out of hand, and only getting worse. 

 

What, on planet earth, will be addressed 'next year' or will change in any way? 

29 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

 

I had read multiple variants of events so suddenly I have to believe one more?

9 minutes ago, olfu said:

I had read multiple variants of events so suddenly I have to believe one more?

Unless I am confronted with an undeniable truth, I mostly believe the version of an event which suits me the best. 

I believe most of us are like that. 

42 minutes ago, Scott said:

Do you have a link to support that claim.   From what I have read he was licensed to carry a firearm.   Here's a source from ABC news:

 

Walker, 27, and a licensed gun owner, was initially charged with attempted murder and assault following the March 13 incident, but those charges were dropped.

 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/kenneth-walker-boyfriend-breonna-taylor-sues-police-city/story?id=72754382

You are correct. The boyfriend that shot at the cops is not the (ex) boyfriend that the cops had a warrant for. 
 

Feel free to delete my post saying otherwise. I was mistaken. 

Anywho, Louisville getting the full BLM treatment right now. Riots, fires, organized antifa presence... 

 

Real awesome. 

And now multiple shots fired at police from rioters, one cop hit. 
 

 

Two cops now. Really fantastic. 
 

 

1 minute ago, Mama Noodle said:

Two cops now. Really fantastic. 

It is tragic that the shooters don't understand how each incident like this nudges tens of thousands of votes towards the Republicans.

The Democrats think that the chaos will help them, and I understand their thinking, but I have a hunch they are miscalculating the cumulative effect of this stuff.

 

What will Lewis Hamilton have to say about this ? What T shirt will he wear at the next F1 race meeting ? Have lost all respect for the bloke. Just a rich attention seeker now

6 minutes ago, donnacha said:

It is tragic that the shooters don't understand how each incident like this nudges tens of thousands of votes towards the Republicans.

The Democrats think that the chaos will help them, and I understand their thinking, but I have a hunch they are miscalculating the cumulative effect of this stuff.

I think mainstream democrats know this is gonna hurt them, that’s why they’ve recently been on the record about it, but the cats out of the bag and there’s nothing they can do without enraging the very people they’ve been giving cover to. 
 

There’s plenty of people in the USA and on this board, who consider what’s going on a “consequence” that will only stop when they get their way. 
 

Sad state of affairs isn’t it. 

3 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

_{No drugs were found, and I thought it as everyone's "right to be armed " to defend there home????}

No, not if you're black in hillbilly country.

It's not my place to make judgment as I haven't been privy to all the details.

A Grand Jury HAS considered the evidence and come to this conclusion, which I doubt they made lightly.

It's all too easy to cry foul, but the evidence is there for those concerned to review themselves.

This was a tragic incident and mistakes were certainly made, especially after the police were fired upon.

Rioting and the like will serve no purpose.

Politically based comments are hot helpful either. Neither party was behind this.

It is the facts that people need to look at, not being controlled by their emotions.

If a review finds the jury has erred, then further charges are possible.

It is supposed to be justice that everyone wants here after all.

1 minute ago, darksidedog said:

It is supposed to be justice that everyone wants here after all.

 

Forgive me for not quoting your whole post. 

 

It should be evident at this point that this isnt what some people are after. 

 

Also:

 

 

 

 

An off topic rant has been removed, along with a reply and a post containing profanity.

1 hour ago, Mama Noodle said:

Anywho, Louisville getting the full BLM treatment right now. Riots, fires, organized antifa presence... 

 

Real awesome. 

You have to feel for the Louisville residents. 

Hopefully now that the facts of the case have been revealed, and yet again the MSM and the left are shown up for the race baiting, anarchy agitators they are, this converts into more votes for Trump. 

 

39 minutes ago, pegman said:

No drugs were found, and I thought it as everyone's "right to be armed " to defend there home????

 

No, not if you're black in hillbilly country.

I suggest some basic law and order courses may be helpful to you.  Start slow and simple.

 

 

 

48 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

It's not my place to make judgment as I haven't been privy to all the details.

A Grand Jury HAS considered the evidence and come to this conclusion, which I doubt they made lightly.

It's all too easy to cry foul, but the evidence is there for those concerned to review themselves.

This was a tragic incident and mistakes were certainly made, especially after the police were fired upon.

Rioting and the like will serve no purpose.

Politically based comments are hot helpful either. Neither party was behind this.

It is the facts that people need to look at, not being controlled by their emotions.

If a review finds the jury has erred, then further charges are possible.

It is supposed to be justice that everyone wants here after all.

A couple of points.

 

The grand jury only hears evidence from the prosecutor. No defence allowed. The prosecutor stated walker shot the officer but the defence after seeing the report questions the ballistic report as non conclusive, but cannot tell the grand jury.