Grand Jury Indicts Officer Involved in Killing of Breonna Taylor For Shooting Into Other Apartments

Alberto LuperonSep 23rd, 2020, 1:38 pm
 
Breonna Taylor

Courtesy of spokespeople for Benjamin Crump

It was announced on Wednesday that Jefferson County grand jury indicted fired police officer Brett Hankison for his actions amid the March 13 shooting death of 26-year-old Louisville woman Breonna Taylor. The defendant faces three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree. These charges don’t have to do with Taylor’s death, but because the defendant allegedly fired into a neighboring apartment occupied by three people.

Louisville Metro Police executed a no-knock search warrant at Taylor’s apartment. According to her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, officers did not announce themselves although he repeatedly called out to them. Walker opened fire once and police shot back, killing Taylor.

Jamarcus Glover, the victim’s ex-boyfriend, was the actual subject of the drug investigation, and lived at another residence that was raided shortly before. He declined a plea deal in which he would have implicated Taylor.

“We are outraged that prosecutors would attempt to justify Breonna Taylor’s death by leaning on Jamarcus Glove to falsely state – after her death – that she was part of an organized crime syndicate,” said Taylor family attorney Ben Crump in a Sept. 1 statement obtained by Law&Crime. “This is why the Black community has no trust in America’s justice system. It’s enormously ironic that the accused drug dealer here acted with honor, refusing to falsely discredit Bre after her death – even when offered the temptation of no prison time for lying, while prosecutors and police acted in the most egregiously dishonest and dishonorable way possible. The police killed Bre once, and now they’re trying to kill her again by killing her reputation and her good name. Disgusting behavior by those who are supposed to be the protectors of justice.”

The shooting landed on a cultural fissure: the ongoing national debate regarding how law enforcement treats people of color, especially Black people. Taylor was Black. So is Walker, Glover, and Attorney General Cameron.

Taylor’s family said she was never involved in drugs. Three officers were said to have opened fire at the March 13 incident: Sgt. Jon Mattingly (Walker shot him in the leg), Detective Myles Cosgrove, and now-fired Detective Brett Hankison.

Then-Interim Police Chief Robert J. Schroeder accused Hakinson in June of “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment. The LMPD’s professional standards unit is investigating both Mattingly and Cosgrove for the incident. Detective Joshua Jaynes is investigated as the officer who obtained the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment. Detectives Michael Campbell, Tony James, and Michael Nobles were also subject to the investigation.

Mattingly lashed out at top brass and protesters in a statement sent early Tuesday morning. He defended how he and other police handled the Taylor raid. He framed the clashing and friction between cops and protesters as “good versus evil.

“Regardless of the outcome today or Wednesday, I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night,” he wrote. “It’s sad how the good guys are demonized, and criminals are canonized.”

This story originally appeared on Law&Crime.

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