Former Louisville Officer Is Indicted in Breonna Taylor Case
Category: News & Politics
Via: xdm9mm • 4 years ago • 53 commentsBy: Rukmini Callimachi 11 mins ago (MSN)
And RIGHTLY so. I'll submit right now that he will be convicted as he has no reasonable defense.
A third officer, Detective Brett Hankison, ran into the parking lot and began firing into the apartment's sliding glass patio door and window, both of which were covered with blinds, in violation of a department policy that requires officers to have a line of sight. He is the only one of the three officers who was dismissed from the force, with a termination letter stating that he showed "an extreme indifference to the value of human life."
He fired blindly into the apartment not knowing his "target" or if he even had a target or how many other people might have been in his line of fire.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former Louisville Officer Is Indicted in Breonna Taylor Case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A grand jury indicted a former Louisville police officer on Wednesday for wanton endangerment during a botched drug raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor in March. No charges were announced against the other two officers who fired shots.
The decision came after more than 100 days of protests and a monthslong investigation into the death of Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician who was shot five times in the hallway of her apartment by officers executing a search warrant.
Because the officers did not shoot first — it was the young woman's boyfriend who opened fire; he has said he mistook the police for intruders — many legal experts had thought it unlikely the officers would be indicted.
Ms. Taylor's name and image have become part of a national movement over racial injustice, with celebrities writing open letters and erecting billboards demanding that the white officers be criminally charged for the death of a young Black woman. City and state officials feared that a grand jury decision not to prosecute the officers would inflame a city that has been roiled by demonstrations that have sometimes turned violent.
Ms. Taylor's mother sued the city of Louisville for wrongful death and received a $12 million settlement last week. But she and her lawyers have insisted that nothing short of murder charges for all three officers would be enough, a demand taken up by thousands of protesters in Kentucky and across the country.
Many legal experts said that indictments would be unlikely, given the state's statute allowing citizens to use lethal force in self-defense.John W. Stewart, a former assistant attorney general in Kentucky, said he believed that at least two of the officers who opened fire were protected by that law.
"As an African-American, as someone who has been victim of police misconduct myself, getting pulled over and profiled, I know how people feel," Mr. Stewart said. "I have been there, but I have also been a prosecutor, and emotions cannot play a part here."
Two officers, Sgt. Jon Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, returned fire in the direction of Ms. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, according to internal documents. In the chaos that ensued, Sergeant Mattingly was shot, injuring the femoral artery in his leg, and the others scrambled to drag him out of the apartment and apply a tourniquet to his leg.
A third officer, Detective Brett Hankison, ran into the parking lot and began firing into the apartment's sliding glass patio door and window, both of which were covered with blinds, in violation of a department policy that requires officers to have a line of sight. He is the only one of the three officers who was dismissed from the force, with a termination letter stating that he showed "an extreme indifference to the value of human life."
In anticipation of the grand jury's decision, the Louisville Police Department canceled vacations and Chief Robert J. Schroeder ordered a 10-day "state of emergency." A local judge signed an order shutting the federal courthouse downtown, where storefronts and office towers were boarded up because of the sometimes violent protests.
Police officers erected barricades and chain-link fencing on Monday blocking the streets near a city park that had been the nucleus of protests, and announced other restrictions.
In a tweet on Tuesday morning, Mayor Greg Fischer said, "Our goal with these steps is ensuring space and opportunity for potential protesters to gather and express their First Amendment rights," and "to keep everyone safe."
The officers who broke down Ms. Taylor's door shortly after midnight on March 13 had come with a search warrant, signed by a local magistrate. They had court approval for a "no-knock" warrant, which Louisville has since banned, but the orders were changed before the raid, requiring them to knock first and announce themselves as the police.
Mr. Walker has said that he and Ms. Taylor did not know who was at her door. Only one neighbor, out of nearly a dozen, reported hearing the officers shout "police" before entering.
The warrant for Ms. Taylor's apartment was one of five issued in a case involving her ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover, who is accused of running a drug trafficking syndicate. At the other addresses that were searched, officers found a table covered in drugs packaged for sale, including a plastic sachet containing cocaine and fentanyl, police logs and a laboratory report show.
The surveillance leading police officers to Ms. Taylor's home included a GPS tracker showing repeated trips by Mr. Glover to her home; photographs of him emerging from her apartment with a package in his hands; footage showing her in a car with Mr. Glover arriving at one of the trap houses he operated; and his use of her address on bank records and other documents. The F.B.I. has opened an investigation into whether the inclusion of her name and address on the warrant violated her civil rights, as her family's lawyers have claimed.
For months, Ms. Taylor's death has been a rallying cry. Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, called out her name during the Democratic National Convention. Oprah Winfrey paid for billboards demanding the officers be charged, writing in her magazine, "We have to use whatever megaphone we can."
Frustration has mounted in Louisville at the pace of the investigation into the fatal shooting. That frustration has been compounded by a city administration that refused to release basic records — including her autopsy and the body camera footage of officers who responded to the shooting — and that made inexplicable errors in some of the documents it did release, including a report incorrectly claiming that she had not been injured and that the door to her apartment was never breached.
Mr. Cameron, a Republican attorney general who ran on a law-and-order platform, had to navigate both the demands of protesters and the constraints of the law, said Frank Mascagni III, a former assistant commonwealth's attorney in Louisville.
"My city is going to blow up if these three men are not charged," said Mr. Mascagni, who believes that the officers' actions are protected under the law. "I'm very nervous for what I think is going to occur."
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The indictment's three counts refer to three occupants of an apartment into which the shots were fired by their initials. None of the initials are B.T. Therefore, the indictments have nothing to do with the killing of Breonna Taylor or any shots fired in or into her apartment. The indictment is only about shots fired by Detective Hankinson into a neighboring apartment.
Do you not think the shots fired into the other three apartments was due to piercing the walls? From what I gleaned reading 2 or 3 other articles was that someone in her apartment fired the first shot and struck an officer in the thigh severing an artery and thus, the gunfire was justified as the cop fearing he and his compadres were in danger. Since they have not released the actual findings of which cop shot the fatal shots, it may be coming later.............
JMHO
I'm not quite certain what you are referring to by "piercing the walls". Nevertheless, from my understanding, the indictment of Detective Hankinson is in regards to his wanton endangerment of occupants of a neighboring apartment. He shot wildly, the shots entered the neighboring apartment, and that is the subject of the indictment against him. Neither he nor the other officers are under indictment for the killing of Breonna Taylor or any shots fired in or into her apartment.
Referring to the officer who received the first bullet, I believe that occurred as he was entering, or after he had already entered Ms. Taylor's apartment.
I don't believe that is what the evidence shows. Unless I am mistaken, it is my understanding that Hankinson shot into the apartment from outside.
I believe that Kentucky Attorney General Cameron said officer Hankinson fired his weapon 10 times from outside the apartment. Thus, the wanton or reckless endangerment charge.
Just as a general principle, I sympathize with that reaction, but I think other reactions are possible - like running and hiding. This being the middle of the night, were cops just firing blindly into a dark house? It sure seems like it.
Show me an LEO who is such a piss poor shot that he can't hit an apartment and shoots into three others...........even while standing outside. I think that may be a reach. We shall see. And if outside, shots, or at least a shot, started the whole thing.
Thanks. That is what I understand the situation to have been.
You have the facts incorrect. He shot into one other apartment that had three occupants, not three other apartments. See comment 2.1.8.
My dad was a cop for 28 years and was very enthusiastic about being the best combat marksman he could be. He practiced religiously, studied gunfight techniques, and won several shooting competitions.
It frustrated him greatly that his brother officers did not spend nearly as much time at the range as he thought they should, and when they did show up, their practice technique and performance were poor. In his mind, they showed a general disregard for studying techniques of a gunfight (not to mention gun safety).
Ironically, the thing he was most proud of in all his years as a cop was that he managed to never once point his gun at a human being, much less open fire.
the system works.
I sure hope this isn't all of it. This is not enough.
That's not justice. You should not be allowed to create a situation (which cops apparently did) that prompts someone else to use deadly force and then claim "self-defense." We should at least see charges and a trial. If no charges are filed, it just looks like bad cops are being protected.
What situation did they create? Besides the whole inviting a wanted felon into your house and using it as a drug warehouse, the police identified themselves, came in and the boyfriend shot a police officer. What exactly are police supposed to do when a wanted felon shoots one of them?
If you legitimately believe that the guy thought there was a home invasion happening (and there seems to be some support for that claim) then that is a situation created by police. You can’t put someone in fear of their life and then claim “self-defense” when they act accordingly.
Whether they properly announced themselves or not, I don’t see how the actions of Breonna’s boyfriend could possibly justify shooting her five times.
All I am saying is let’s have some charges and a trial so we can have an open examination of the evidence and - in theory - an unbiased conclusion on the facts.
Who was the wanted felon that shot the police officer?
My bad, I got her boyfriends confused. I don't know if the boyfriend in the bed has a criminal record. Her other boyfriend, Glover, certainly did.
That's an argument not to charge Walker with attempted murder and I'm sure he'll use it in his defense. You also can't blame police for shooting back when someone shoots at them.
ying is let’s have some charges and a trial so we can have an open examination of the evidence and - in theory - an unbiased conclusion on the facts.
I think letting a grand jury make the charging decision satisfies the requirement. If the citizens of Louisville don't think there's enough evidence to even support indictments, then there's no need for a trial.
Here's some context on her relationship with Glover:
Taylor's ex-boyfriend had his bank account registered to her address, gave her phone number as his own and allegedly borrowed a car hired under her name that would later be connected to a murder investigation of one of his associates.
On February 14, just one month before Taylor died, Glover passed off Taylor's phone number as his own when he tried to file a complaint against a cop for towing his car, the report reveals.
In the following 10 days, investigators verified that Glover was also using Taylor's home address - 3003 Springfield Drive - and that her property was listed as the mailing address for his Chase Bank account, it shows.
Mail addressed to Glover was reportedly seized from Taylor's apartment in the aftermath of her shooting.
The report also documents a series of prison phone call transcripts between Glover and Taylor, when the convicted drug dealer was behind bars.
In one conversation on January 3, Glover asked Taylor if she had talked to 'Doug', identified as Adrian Walker.
'You talk to Doug?' Glover asked Taylor.
'Yeah, I did,' Taylor responded, Wave reported. 'He said he was already back at the trap.'
Adrian Walker, 27, was the second suspect alongside Glover sought by police in the raid at Taylor's home.
The report also states that on January 2, the day before these calls were made and when Glover was not in police custody, he pulled up to 'trap house' 2424 Elliott Avenue driving Taylor's car.
Taylor was allegedly spotted on surveillance visiting the home on occasion.
Glover's vehicle - a red Dodge Charger - also made six trips to Taylor's home in January where he was sometimes pictured collecting packages, the report says.
Detectives believed Glover had been stashing money or drugs at her home to avoid detection from law enforcement. Neither money nor drugs were found there on March 13.
It depends. If they provoked the attack, it's not self-defense. But even if they are justified in shooting at someone, Breonna Taylor wasn't shooting anybody. "Shooting back" has to be a little more focused than "thataway."
I'm not asking for impossible precision like "shoot him in the leg so we can question him." But I don't think it's too much to ask that a cop be able to identify the specific person shooting him, return aimed fire at that person only, and not return fire but seek shelter (if possible) when returning fire would mean killing an innocent person.
I'll give you an example we had here in Southern California a few years ago: Police were searching for a man, Christopher Dorner, who had killed a couple of cops and two other people. Obviously, he was considered armed and very dangerous.
He was said to be driving a charcoal colored Nissan pickup truck.
Police staked out his house. Two women drove by (a woman and her 71 year old mother). They were delivering newspapers from a blue Toyota pickup truck with dark rear windows (probably making it impossible to identify the occupants). As they drove, they threw papers into driveways. When a paper smacked into the pavement, cops decided that was the sound of a gun. They opened fire and put over 100 rounds into the back of this truck.
Miraculously, the women survived. Perhaps even more miraculously, not one of the 8 cops who opened fire lost his job, was suspended, or charged with a crime. All that happened was they underwent additional training. To me, that is an insane response (or lack of response) to seriously sloppy and dangerous police work.
Good, hard-working, and conscientious cops deserve the benefit of the doubt, but that gracious impulse can go too far.
The problem is it's not public and the procedures are different than at a trial. And because it's not public, people don't trust the grand jury.
If there is no need for a trial, then it shouldn't hurt anything to have one. At least, that's what cops and DAs always say about regular people. "Nothing to hide," right?
And I still haven't seen any reason why somebody should not be prosecuted for the death of Breonna Taylor.
According to the information in the media reports, Kenneth Walker, the man in Ms. Taylor's apartment has no criminal record, and is licensed to carry a firearm.
Prosecutors bring cases to trial where they believe they evidence shows they can prove to the jury that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, not to "sort out the evidence".
I think there are a lot of ways to be a prosecutor and they make decisions for a variety of reasons.
Actually yeah. All the time.
Men impersonating police force their way into woman's home and shoot her in SE Houston
Man killed during home invasion with suspect pretending to be police
Home Invasion Robbers Burst Into Home Posing as Police
Unless they are in hurry, or think they might be in some danger, they could wait a few minutes for someone to answer the door, show their ID, and then be let in peacefully. The details of the knock are important. We don't know if anyone inside heard them announce themselves. And I think there should be some allowance made for it being the middle of the night. Wake me up at 3 am and I'm practically an alzhemier's patient. You're lucky if I know my own name.
True, although the prosecutors presentation to the jury can have a significant persuasive effect.
"to the grand jury"
Yeah. We might have to decide that we're ok with that. We can have perfectly effective police or we can have perfectly gentle police, but we probably can't have both. I'm not sure busting a small time drug dealer is worth killing someone over.
Victim blaming.
Where?
"Because the officers did not shoot first — it was the young woman’s boyfriend who opened fire; he has said he mistook the police for intruders — many legal experts had thought it unlikely the officers would be indicted in her death."
I never knew that detail!
The law in Kentucky regarding use of defensive force regarding dwelling and residences:
Kentucky is a Castle Doctrine state.