The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Officers shot in protests over killing of Breonna
Blacklash after failure to charge police for shooting dead black woman
A suspect is in custody after two police officers were shot in Kentucky as protests against the death of black woman Breonna Taylor reignite across the US.
Louisville police did not provide details on the injured or the suspect.
It comes hours after a Kentucky grand jury indicted a single police officer for shooting into neighbouring apartments, but did not move forward with charges against any officers for their role in Ms Taylor’s death.
A grand jury announced that Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment in connection to the police raid on March 13.
It sparked demonstrations downtown Louisville, where in an
Associated Press reporter saw National Guard members and armoured military vehicles while police in riot gear fired ‘flash bangs’ and formed a line at Jefferson Square, which has been at the centre of protests.
Protests quickly erupted elsewhere: demonstrators marched through the streets of New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia and the nation’s capital.
“It’s a volcano built up and now it’s exploded,” said Dekevion Gause, who sat beside a Louisville park memorial to Taylor made of flowers, paintings and tiny grave markers representing black people killed by police.
Ms Taylor, a medical worker, was shot multiple times by officers who entered her home using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation.
The warrant used to search her home was connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found.
The use of no-knock warrants has since been banned by Louisville’s Metro Council.
Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron said his office had been receiving materials from the Louisville Police Department’s public integrity unit while they tried to determine whether state charges would be brought against the three officers involved.
Mr Hankison was fired from the city’s police department on June 23.
A termination letter sent to him said the white officer had violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Ms Taylor’s apartment in March.
Mr Hankison, Sergeant Johnathan Mattingly, Officer Myles Cosgrove and detective Joshua Jaynes, who sought the warrant, were placed on administrative reassignment after the shooting.
Ms Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire when police burst in, hitting Mr Mattingly. Mr Walker was charged with attempted murder, but prosecutors later dropped the charge.
Mr Walker told police he did not know who was coming into the home and fired in self-defence.
On September 15, the city settled a lawsuit against the three officers brought by Ms Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, agreeing to pay her $12 million and enact police reforms.