Officers Who Killed Breonna Taylor Face No Murder Charges
Only one officer was charged with wanton endangerment for firing stray bullets into people’s homes.
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More than six months after the killing of Breonna Taylor, a grand jury in Kentucky voted to charge former officer Brett Hankison with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree. The other two officers involved in the shooting, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, were not charged.
The news comes after the city’s mayor, Greg Fischer, declared a state of emergency this week due to the potential “civil unrest” in response to the grand jury’s decision. Fischer also ordered a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. from Wednesday to Friday. In addition, Louisville Chief of Police Robert J. Schroeder placed barricades and city vehicles downtown, barring officers from requesting time off in anticipation of protests.
On March 13, three plainclothes LMPD officers — later identified as Mattingly, Hankison, and Cosgrove — were ordered to execute a no-knock warrant at Breonna Taylor’s apartment. According to the New York Times, the orders were changed prior to a “knock and announce,” meaning the officers had to announce themselves prior to entering. According to Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, he and Taylor heard banging but did not hear the officers announce themselves. Eleven other witnesses corroborated Walker’s claims that they did not hear the officers announce themselves. The three officers involved were adamant that they did in fact shout “Police!” Only one witness confirmed the officers’ claim, but said they only heard the officers shout “Police!” once.
After hearing the aggressive knocking, the officers entered Taylor’s apartment. Walker, who was licensed to carry a firearm, believed they were experiencing a home invasion and shot at the police once — injuring Jonathon Mattingly. The three officers responded by firing twenty rounds. Brett Hankison fired ten of the twenty rounds sent in the couple’s direction. An ambulance arrived soon after the shooting, with two other officers attending to Mattingly, but not Taylor. Taylor received no medical attention for over 20 minutes after she was shot. According to Taylor’s autopsy, she received five gunshot wounds to the body.
On June 23, Hankison was fired for his actions during the raid, during which Chief Schroeder stated Hankison, “displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life” as he “wantonly and blindly fired ten rounds.”
According to Kentucky’s legislature, a person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when, “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person.” The charge against Hankison is a Class D felony and carries a prison sentence up to five years. If the charges are run concurrently, Hankison will face up to five years of prison time, but if they are not he could face up to 15 years.
The Taylor family’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, tweeted in response to the news, calling the charges of wanton endangerment “outrageous and offensive.” Crump shed light on the three charges against Hankison, noting that Hankison was not charged for the killing of Taylor, but for potentially endangering the lives of her neighbors.
Earlier this month, the City of Louisville agreed to a $12 million dollar settlement with the Taylor family after they filed a wrongful death suit against the city on May 15. Mayor Fischer indefinitely suspended no-knock warrants on May 29.
