Twists and turns in the United States on multiple cases in which police are charged with the deaths of African Americans. In the emblematic case of Breonna Taylor, it was a police officer who pleaded guilty to providing false information in order to obtain a search warrant, the execution of which resulted in the young woman’s death. On March 13, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky’s largest city, three police officers broke into the home of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in the middle of the night as part of a drug trafficking investigation into her ex-boyfriend.
His new companion, Kenneth Walker, believed they were burglars and fired a shot with a legally owned gun. Police responded and Breonna Taylor received around 20 bullets. Kelly Goodlett, who has since resigned, admitted to having “forged” a search warrant request to a judge with another police officer and then lied “to cover up the initial false statements”. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Charges against two other police officers
In Atlanta, on the other hand, it’s time for misunderstandings after charges were dropped against two white police officers charged in the 2020 death of Rayshard Brooks, another African American man. Constable Garrett Rolfe has been charged with “murder” after firing two bullets in the victim’s back, his colleague Devin Brosnan with “assault and breach of his oath”. Special prosecutor Peter Skandalakis said on Tuesday that he had concluded the police officer’s response was “objectively reasonable” given “the rapidly changing circumstances” and the charges against the two agents were dropped will.
The tragedy came after the two police officers were called to remove Rayshard Brooks, who was sleeping in his car, from the drive-thru aisle of a Wendy’s restaurant. However, the young man, an alcoholic, was cooperative for more than half an hour before the situation escalated when the agents tried to handcuff him: he had taken the taser from one of the police officers and had run away. He then fired at her with the stun gun and Garrett Rolfe shot him twice in the back.
Lawyers for Rayshard Brook’s widow have denounced a “puzzling” decision and announced their intention to pursue further appeals, according to local broadcaster FOX5, and the NAACP has called for the case to go before a grand jury. “There is no statute of limitations on a murder case, and there will be no statute of limitations on our efforts to accommodate Rayshard Brooks,” said Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs.