A grand jury is charging former Louisville police detective Brett Hankison in the death of Breonna Taylor.
He is being charged with shooting into the apartment behind Taylor’s home. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron spoke yesterday and called Taylor’s death a tragedy and said Hankison fired ten times. Police reports say Hankison left his position at the front door of Taylor’s apartment and walked around to the front of her home. He allegedly opened fire through the window and patio door. He was fired for doing that.
The attorney general said Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove were justified in firing their weapons after they were shot upon. They fired 22 shots. Six of them hit Taylor, but only one of those was fatal. Cameron said the investigation determined Cosgrove fired the fatal shot. Cameron said he put aside his personal emotions while considering charges against the three police officers who fired their weapons the night Taylor died. He said the FBI will consider if any civil rights violations of law took place. Meantime, Cameron says it is unlikely any additional charges will be coming.
Cameron says he knows everyone will not be satisfied with the charges being brought against the officers involved in Taylor’s death. He said mob justice is not justice. Cameron said justice cannot be swayed by public opinion. He said how people react to today’s charges will show what kind of people we are. Cameron said it we can choose to go with the truth and facts, or we can try to bend the facts to fit what they want the truth to be. The Attorney General criticized celebrities who do not live in the state. He said he wants to be part of the healing process and the state will do everything possible to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Cameron said he is creating a task force to examine how search warrants are executed.
An attorney for Sgt. Mattingly reacted to the decision soon after it was announced. Lawyer Kent J. Wicker says the grand jury’s decision to not indict his client or Detective Myles Cosgrove “shows the system works” and grand jurors “recognized and respected the facts.” It goes on to say the death of Taylor is a tragedy, but the officers didn’t act in a reckless or unprofessional matter.
Attorney Ben Crump says the Taylor case is just the latest example that systemic racism exists. The civil rights attorney says Black people have been dealing with systemic racism since this land was discovered. Crump was in Arizona filing a lawsuit in another civil rights case. He said Black people have been getting killed both inside and outside the system because of systemic racism.
A citywide curfew began at 9 p.m. in Louisville. Mayor Greg Fischer says the curfew goes for 72-hours and is daily from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. This comes as the National Guard and other agencies are in the city to deal with any potential unrest.
Here in state reactions included crowds in Milwaukee.
The latest crowds of angry people in the streets of Milwaukee took to blocking a section of I-94 because prosecutors in Kentucky are not bringing charges for Breonna Taylor’s death. The attorney general in Kentucky yesterday announced the indictment of one officer for wrongfully firing his gun, but no one will face charges for the officer-involved shooting that left Taylor dead. Police say her boyfriend fired at them during a drug raid. Hundreds of people marched in Milwaukee last night. They made it to I-94 and 25th Street, and closed the interstate for a while.
