The charges mark the first federal counts leveled against any of the officers involved in the botched March 2020 raid. In addition to civil rights offenses, federal authorities charged the four with unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction, Garland said.
Former Detective Joshua Jaynes, 40, Detective Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany, 35, were charged with submitting a false affidavit to search Taylor’s home ahead of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department’s raid, and then working together to create a “false cover story in an attempt to escape responsibility for their roles in preparing the warrant affidavit that contained false information,” according to court documents.
The death of 26-year-old Taylor, an emergency room technician, along with that of George Floyd and others, sparked nationwide protests in 2020, leading to changes in policing policy and laws.
Here’s a look at the raid, Taylor’s death and its aftermath.
The botched raid
On March 12, 2020, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge approved five search warrants for locations linked to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, a convicted felon suspected of supplying a local drug house. One of those locations was Taylor’s residence.
In the early hours of March 13, Hankison and other officers executed a warrant at Taylor’s apartment. Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, when the officers announced their presence and then battered down the front door.
That triggered a volley of fire from the officers. Taylor, who was standing in a hallway with Walker, was shot multiple times. Walker was not injured.
“Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker said in a 911 call.
Hankison had been standing outside the apartment and is accused of blindly firing through a door and a window. His bullets entered a neighboring apartment, where a pregnant woman, a man and a child were home, according to the state attorney general.
Walker was at first charged with attempted murder of a police officer and first-degree assault — Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was shot in the leg — but prosecutors later decided to drop the charges.
None of the police officers at the raid were wearing body cameras, and there is no video of the night Taylor bled to death in her hallway.
Hankison was fired from the police department in late June 2020.
The two other officers who fired shots, Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, were not indicted by the state or the federal government. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has said they were justified in shooting in self-defense, because Taylor’s boyfriend fired first.
No drugs were found in the apartment, and Taylor’s family and their attorney have maintained she was not involved in her ex-boyfriend’s alleged drug deals.
The protests
In September, protests began to take place nightly in Louisville after a grand jury didn’t charge the other police officers involved in Taylor’s death, indicting only Hankison.
By then, Taylor’s name was known nationally and beyond, just as Floyd’s was, and her death was a central part of the protests that rocked the country throughout much of 2020.
The aftermath
Those protests sparked a movement demanding a change in policing and even seeking to defund police departments.
Police and some witnesses gave conflicting reports on whether the officers announced themselves before battering down Taylor’s door, but her death drew attention to no-knock search warrants. The officer who rammed the door at Taylor’s apartment testified at Hankison’s state trial that police announced themselves four or five times.
In Louisville, the controversy led to the passing of “Breonna’s Law” in June 2020, which bans such warrants and requires officers to wear body cameras when carrying out search warrants.
Almost a year later, in April 2021, the Kentucky state legislature passed a bill setting restrictions on no-knock warrants but did not outlaw them outright.
The settlement stipulated the city would establish a housing credit program as an incentive for officers to live in the areas they serve, use social workers to provide support on certain police runs and require commanders to review and approve search warrants before seeking judicial approval, among other changes.
“Justice for Breonna means that we will continue to save lives in her honor,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said at the time.
“No amount of money accomplishes that, but the police reform measures that we were able to get passed as a part of this settlement mean so much more to my family, our community, and to Breonna’s legacy.”
Source : CNN