Four Kentucky police officers charged in Breonna Taylor killing

Four Kentucky police officers charged in Breonna Taylor killing (1)

CSU World Record, WASHINGTON, August 4 – In a case that sparked widespread demonstrations, U.S. prosecutors on Thursday filed charges against four current and former Louisville, Kentucky, police officers for their participation in the bungled raid in 2020 that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was inside her home.

Kyle Meany, Joshua Jaynes, and Kelly Goodlett, three of the cops, were accused of deliberately providing false information to secure the search warrant that permitted the search of Taylor’s residence and ultimately the bungled raid that claimed her life.

According to U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland, a fourth officer, former detective Brett Hankinson, was charged with civil rights crimes for allegedly employing excessive force.

Garland stated at a press conference that Breonna Taylor “should be living today.”

Two years ago, in the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak, the death of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical worker, was one of three incidents that sparked a summer of demonstrations against racial inequality and police brutality.

In a statement announcing the news, attorneys for the Taylor family noted that “today was a tremendous step toward justice.”

When Louisville police broke down Taylor’s door while conducting an alleged drug investigation, her boyfriend—who was in possession of a legally owned firearm—started shooting at the officers. The officers then returned fire with 22 shots into the apartment, killing Taylor, according to the prosecution.

Prosecutors claim that Hankinson backed away from the glass door and fired 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment through a window and glass door that were draped with blinds.

Days after the shooting, according to the prosecution, Jaynes and Goodlett gathered in a garage to come up with a bogus narrative to explain away the fabricated evidence they had used to support the disastrous raid.

National demonstrations were spurred by Taylor’s murder as well as the high-profile 2020 killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia.

Scott Malone and Colleen Jenkins reported; Daniel Wallis and Marla Dickerson edited.

The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles serve as our benchmarks.

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