Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced Wednesday that a grand jury indicted one former Louisville police detective in connection with the shooting death of Breonna Taylor.
Brett Hankison was charged with 3 felony counts of wanton endangerment after firing shots into a nearby apartment during the March raid.
Hankison recklessly fired several shots the night of the raid, according to Cameron, though none of the shots hit Taylor.
The two other officers involved in the raid, Sergeant Jon Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, who actually shot Taylor, were not charged. Both remain with the Louisville police department.
The officers were serving a search warrant as part of a drug investigation on March 13 at Taylor’s apartment. A focus of the investigation was Taylor’s former boyfriend, accused drug dealer Jamarcus Glover, whose home was also raided March 13. According to Cameron, the officers knocked on Taylor’s door and identified themselves. After no one answered, Cameron said, they breached the door. According to investigators, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired first at the officers, striking and wounding Mattingly. The officers then returned fire, killing Taylor, who had been standing next to Walker in the hallway of her apartment.
“The grand jury determined that there is no evidence to support a criminal violation of state law caused Ms. Taylor’s death,” Cameron said.
The grand jury’s decision not to indict the officers on homicide charges sparked protests in Louisville Wednesday evening.
“Jefferson County Grand Jury indicts former ofc. Brett Hankison with 3 counts of Wanton Endangerment in 1st Degree for bullets that went into other apartments but NOTHING for the murder of Breonna Taylor. This is outrageous and offensive!” Taylor family attorney Ben Crump tweeted Wednesday.
