Breonna Taylor: One Louisville Officer Charged
One of the three Louisville police officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor has been charged. Brett Hankison has been charged with three counts of wanton endangerment of the first degree, according to CNN.
Hankison was fired from the department more than three months after Taylor’s death. Robert Schroeder, who was police chief at the time, wrote in a termination letter that Hankinson violated standard operating procedure when his “actions displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life” after he “wantonly and blindly fired ten (10) rounds” into Taylor’s apartment.
As Fox News reports, no charges were immediately announced against the two other officers involved in the raid — Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly. Sgt. Mattingly was shot in the leg and underwent surgery after the police operation that resulted in Taylor’s death.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical worker, was shot five times by the officers who entered her home using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation on March 13.
The indictment follows a record $12 million settlement between the city of Louisville, Kentucky and the family of Breonna Taylor. The settlement was announced by city officials and Taylor’s family earlier this month, and includes a major police reform package.
