Cops shot in race riot Two officers wounded amid furious Breonna Taylor backlash

Riot police (far right) cracked down on protests in Kentucky, arresting demonstrators (top right) outraged by a decision not to charge two cops who killed nurse Breonna Taylor (top left) with murder. Pictures: AFP

LOUISVILLE: Two police officers have been shot in Louisville amid massive protests after a grand jury decided not to lay murder charges against two white cops involved in the killing of nurse Breonna Taylor.

The officers were shot as residents took to the streets after the grand jury’s decision was handed down earlier in the day. Their injuries were not said to be critical.

Body camera footage recorded by another officer shows a chaotic scene just prior to the shots ringing out. Fireworks exploded above a near-empty street as police moved down the middle of the road, the video shows. A barrage of gunfire then erupts as officers shout “shots fired!” according to the footage.

The shooting took place 30 minutes before the city’s 9pm curfew.

The city had proactively issued a “state of emergency” declaration anticipating unrest over the grand jury

Officers Cosgrove and Mattingly

decision. Taylor was hit by six bullets when police raided her home looking for a former boyfriend.

The grand jury investigated three officers involved in her killing: Myles Cosgrove, Jonathan Mattingly and Brett Hankison, only charging Hankison with the lesser offence of “wanton endangerment” over shots he fired into apartments adjoining Taylor’s home.

Kentucky Attorney-general Daniel Cameron said because Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired

first, Cosgrove and Mattingly were “justified in their use of force after having been fired upon”.

“I know not everyone will be satisfied with the (ruling),” he said.

Legal experts were dubious that the grand jury would return murder indictments because Walker shot first, believing that the cops — who had smashed down the front door during the night — were intruders.

Taylor’s name has become a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement, and the decision sparked angry protests in cities across the US from New York and Boston to Washington and Los Angeles.

Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Taylor family, condemned the decision as “outrageous and offensive”.

Police in riot gear were seen making several arrests in Louisville, and after night fell police used flash bangs to clear hundreds of protesters from Jefferson Square Park, where a memorial to Taylor was placed. “Say her name — Breonna Taylor!” they chanted. “No lives matter until black lives matter!”

Some downtown business owners boarded up their shops in anticipation of the unrest sparked by the grand jury decision.

“Breonna Taylor deserves justice,” 17-year-old black protester Decorryn Adams said. “Nothing will change if we don’t stick together.”

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the grand jury decision as “not close to justice”.

“This is the manifestation of what the millions of people who have taken to the streets to protest police violence already know: modern policing and our criminal legal system are rotten to the core,” it said.

The city of Louisville settled a wrongful death suit with Taylor’s family for $US12M ($17m) last week.