‘Betrayed’ by Breonna DA

A grand jury that heard evidence in the Breonna Taylor case expressed immediate outrage when prosecutors presented only wanton endangerment charges for her shooting death by police, two of the jurors say.

“It was uproar in that room,” one of the men told CBS’ Gayle King in the pair’s first on-camera interview since stepping forward with court filings.

“Almost the entire room” protested the lack of charges related to Taylor’s shooting death, the second grand juror told King in the interview that aired Wednesday. Both men asked to remain anonymous.

“As we were listening to (the evidence), we were sure this was leading up to something like that,” he said when asked if he’d expected murder or manslaughter charges.

The grand jurors and their lawyer said the panel never even met Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron during the proceedings — and weren’t given the charges they’d be considering upfront, a departure from the usual “road map” that’s given such jurors.

The panelists sat through nearly 20 hours of evidence covering the night Taylor died and were asked to consider only wanton endangerment charges against former

Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison for the shots he fired that went into a neighboring apartment, the men confirmed.

“They never gave us the opportunity to deliberate on anything but the charges for Hankison. That was it,” the first grand juror said.

“It’s like, ‘What did we just sit through?’” he told King. “To me, it was a betrayal.”

Taylor, 26, was shot and killed March 13 after a group of officers broke down her door after midnight while serving a no-knock warrant in a narcotics investigation involving her ex-boyfriend.

Her current boyfriend Kenneth Walker, a licensed gun owner, fired a warning shot because the couple believed they were the victims of a home invasion, he later told police.

Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove fired 22 bullets back, killing Taylor.

At a press conference, Cameron said, “While there are six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law, these charges are not applicable ... because ... the grand jury agreed, that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in the return of deadly fire.”

The second grand juror told King that Cameron’s press conference marked the first time he heard about the “six possible” homicide charges.