‘No easy answer’: Many ask what next in Breonna Taylor case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In the wake of the decision not to prosecute Kentucky police officers for killing Breonna Taylor, authorities and activists alike wrestled Thursday with the question of what comes next amid continued demands for justice in the Black woman’s death.
“The question obviously is: What do we do with this pain?” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said during a news conference. “There is no one answer, no easy answer to that question.”
Fischer pleaded for calm a day after peaceful protests in Louisville turned violent, and a gunman shot and wounded two police officers. Activists vowed to press on with their cause after a grand jury Wednesday failed to bring homicide charges against the officers who burst into Taylor’s apartment during a drug investigation in March.
Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by white officers after Taylor’s boyfriend fired on them, according to authorities. Police entered on a warrant connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside.
State Attorney General Daniel Cameron said the investigation showed officers were acting in self-defense; one was wounded. A single officer was charged Wednesday with wanton endangerment for firing into neighboring apartments.
The only possibility for criminal charges against the officers for the killing itself now seems to rest with the U.S. Justice Department. The FBI is still investigating whether Taylor’s civil rights were violated. But the burden of proof for such cases is high, with prosecutors having to prove officers knew they were acting illegally and made a willful decision to cause someone’s death.
The Justice Department has said that a “mistake, fear, misperception or even poor judgment does not constitute willful conduct prosecutable under the statute.”
Activists, celebrities and everyday Americans have called for charges against police since Taylor’s death. Along with George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis, Taylor’s name became a rallying cry during nationwide protests this summer that drew attention to entrenched racism and demanded police reform.
The grand jury’s decision set off a new wave of protests in U.S. cities, some of them marred by violence.
Seattle police said multiple officers were injured during demonstrations Wednesday, including one struck in the head by a baseball bat that cracked his helmet. They were also investigating a video that apparently shows an officer’s bike rolling over someone’s head. In Portland, Oregon, people hurled Molotov cocktails at officers. Denver police said a man was detained after driving his car through a group of protesters, though none were reported injured.
Though protests in Louisville began peacefully, officers declared an unlawful assembly after they said fires were set in garbage cans, several vehicles were damaged and stores were broken into. Mayor Fischer put in place a curfew through the weekend.
Larynzo D. Johnson, 26, was charged with shooting two Louisville police officers. An arrest citation said police had video of Johnson firing at officers. Court records did not list a lawyer for Johnson, who was scheduled for arraignment Friday.