The only lawsuit stemming from the nighttime police raid that killed Breonna Taylor began on Wednesday, but the case does not focus on the officer who shot her, but on a former police detective accused of recklessly endangering his neighbors by shooting at their apartment. in Louisville. , Key.
Brett Hankinson who was fired a few months after the raid in March 2020, he faces three charges of wantonly making a threat after firing 10 shots during the operation. A former chief of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department said Mr. Hankinson fired “blindly” and that several bullets hit a neighbor’s apartment, endangering three people sleeping there: a pregnant woman, her husband and their 5-year-old daughter. old child.
When the police broke down the door to Ms. Taylor’s apartment, her boyfriend shot one officer in the leg. Guy, Kenneth Walker, later said he did not hear them announce themselves and believed they were intruders. The officers returned fire, killing Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who worked as an emergency room technician. Her death sparked protests in Louisville and across the country.
The officers initially obtained court permission to serve a “no knock” warrant at an apartment where they believed evidence of drug trafficking linked to her ex-boyfriend might be found, but the order was changed to a raid requiring the officers to announce their actions. presence at the entrance to the apartment.
Unlike other recent high-profile police shootings that have often been videotaped, there is no such footage. last moments before Ms. Taylor’s death because the police did not use body cameras. The murder of Ms Taylor has brought renewed attention to no-strike orders as competing accounts appeared about whether the cops introduced themselves before kicking in her door.
It also sparked criticism of the justification the police used to obtain a warrant to carry out the raid. The police said they believe that the ex-boyfriend used her apartment receive packages related to the drug trade, but according to her family’s lawyer, Ms. Taylor recently ended her relationship with him. By the time her apartment was searched, her ex-boyfriend was already in custody. The police also did not have an ambulance on duty in the area.
Mr. Hankison fired 10 bullets at the door and patio window of Ms. Taylor’s apartment without a line of sight, and some of them hit the next block. His bullets hit the soap dish, the table, and the sliding glass door. None of Mr. Hankinson’s bullets hit Ms. Taylor or anyone else, but two other officers’ bullets hit Ms. Taylor, and she bled to death after being shot five or six times.
Since Ms. Taylor’s death, several cities, including Houston as well as Minneapolis, have limited the use of contactless orders. Earlier this month, a Minneapolis police officer shot and killed Amir Locke, a 22-year-old black man.while serving a warrant for the protection of an apartment in the city center.
Wednesday’s opening statements came just months after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced his office would not file charges against either of the two police officers who shot Ms. Taylor. including Detective Miles Cosgrove, who the FBI says fired the fatal bullet. The grand jurors who voted to indict Mr. Hankison said Mr. Cameron, a Republican, did not give them the opportunity to press charges in the murder of Ms. Taylor.
In Louisville, people protested in the streets for more than 100 days over a refusal to charge any officers in the death of Ms. Taylor. Earlier this month, lawyers and Judge Ann Bailey Smith of Jefferson County Circuit Court began the tedious process of reducing the 250 juror to 15. By Tuesday evening jury The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, has been expedited.
Under Kentucky law, a person commits the offense of intentionally endangering when he “intentionally commits acts that create a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person” and does so “in circumstances demonstrating the utmost indifference to the value of human life”. ” Other states may use terms such as “reckless endangerment” for an equivalent crime.
The crime is a felony and can carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine for each count. A person may be guilty of intentionally creating danger even if they did not intend to harm anyone or commit a crime.