Demands grow to hold more cops in woman’s death
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The outcry has reverberated for weeks online and at demonstrations nationwide: Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor.
But three months after plainclothes detectives serving a warrant busted into her Louisville apartment and shot the 26yearold Black woman to death, only one of the three officers who opened fire has lost his job. No one is facing criminal charges.
Calls for action against the officers have gotten louder during a national reckoning over racism and police brutality following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Officials there are prosecuting four officers involved, including bringing a murder charge against the officer who pressed a knee into Floyd’s neck on May 25.
That has left people, from protesters to celebrities, wondering why justice is slow to come in Taylor’s case.
“It’s definitely taking too long, it’s definitely frustrating,” said Kirstia Drury, 32, who joined street protests in Louisville after Taylor’s death. “If someone even so much as shot a police dog, they would’ve already been convicted and halfway to prison.”
Taylor’s death March 13 has attracted attention from stars such as Lizzo, Jada Pinkett Smith and Beyoncé, who wrote an open letter last week urging Kentucky’s attorney general to move swiftly. Millions have signed an online petition demanding justice for Taylor.
“They murdered that girl in her own house,” said Ashley Kidwell, who drove up from Atlanta to join Louisville protests in early June. “We’re going into July, and there’s been no justice served.”
Attorney General Daniel Cameron, whose office is reviewing the investigation by Louisville police, has declined to offer a timetable.
“An investigation of this magnitude, when done correctly, requires time and patience,” Cameron, Kentucky’s first Black attorney general, said last week.
The FBI also is investigating the officers’ actions and exploring potential civil rights violations.
Police announced Tuesday that Brett Hankison had been fired for violating rules on the use of deadly force. Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly remain employed but are on administrative reassignment while the case is investigated.
The narcotics detectives had a search warrant to enter Taylor’s home, one of several “no knock” warrants issued by a judge in a drug investigation. No drugs were found at Taylor’s home.
Taylor was shot eight times. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire when police burst in, shooting Mattingly. Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but prosecutors later dropped that charge.