Anger follows ‘offensive’ lack of charges for police officers who killed Breonna Taylor

Activists and racial justice campaigners reacted with anger on Wednesday after a grand jury revealed that only one police officer involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor would face charges, and none of those charges relate to her death.

Following months of protests over the killing of the 26-year-old medical technician inside her home, officer Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment — a felony charge which fell far short of what campaigners had hoped for.    

"It does not deal with the fact that the life of Breonna Taylor was taken,” said civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton, following the announcement on Wednesday.

“It does not address her being a victim of being killed. The value of her life is not at all addressed. When we say Black Lives Matter, this indictment says it does not matter."

The charges handed down do not relate to the killing of Ms Taylor, but to bullets fired by detective Hankison that hit neighbouring apartments. Mr Hankison’s bail was set at $10,000.

Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, the two other officers involved in the shooting, and who fired the shots that hit Ms Taylor, will face no charges.

Ms Taylor was struck by six bullets fired by the officers after they forced their way into her apartment. Her death, and the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked nationwide protests calling for racial justice.

Ben Crump, attorney for Ms Taylor’s family, called the indictment “offensive.”

“Brett Hankison with 3 counts of Wanton Endangerment in 1st Degree for bullets that went into other apartments but NOTHING for the murder of Breonna Taylor. This is outrageous and offensive!”, he wrote.

“If Brett Hankison's behavior was wanton endangerment to people in neighboring apartments, then it should have been wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylor's apartment too. In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder!” he added.

Ms Taylor’s sister, Juniyah, wrote on Instagram: “Sister I am so sorry.”

The African American Policy Forum, a think tank that campaigns to raise awareness of police violence against Black women, said: “We have a system of criminal justice that would rather arrest every protester and every person who dares cry out for justice than hold accountable the officers who murdered Breonna Taylor."

“We will continue to fight for a world in which Black women are free from the twin terrors of racism and sexism,” it added. 

In the immediate aftermath of the announcement, protesters began marching through downtown Louisville chanted Ms Taylor’s name.

Kentucky’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron, said in a press conference on Wednesday that a ballistics test had determined that detective Cosgrove fired the fatal shot, but that the officers were  “justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker,” Ms Taylor’s boyfriend.  

This is "not fully what we wanted", he added, but it "brings us closer to justice."

In June, the Louisville Metro Police Department fired Hankison. Interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder, who is retiring on 1 October, wrote in the termination notice that Hankison "displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life" when he "wantonly and blindly fired" 10 rounds into Ms Taylor's home.