One Officer Has Been Indicted in Breonna Taylor's Case
Black Lives Matter

One Officer Has Been Indicted in Breonna Taylor's Case

by Logan Potter

After a long six months since the murder of Breonna Taylor, Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced the verdict of a grand jury, which was handed findings and evidence from Cameron's office this week. Brett Hankison, a former police officer in Louisville who was fired in June, was charged with three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment. None of which are related to the murder of Breonna Taylor herself.

According to Kentucky statute 508.060, "A person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person."

The news comes days after Breonna Taylor's family settled with the city of Louisville. In a now-deleted tweet from this morning, the attorney for Breonna's family, Ben Crump, said, "While not fully what we wanted, this brings us closer to #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor."

Crump has now revised his statement, instead calling the announcement "outrageous and offensive," tweeting, "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!"

The US National Guard was deployed in Kentucky ahead of the announcement, and the Louisville mayor implemented a curfew in anticipation of the response. Just two days ago, it was reported that Robert Schroeder, the interim chief of police, had declared a state of emergency.

The reason why those measures needed to be taken was not stated at the time of announcement. There were, however, no murder or manslaughter indictments, and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove were not indicted by the grand jury on any charges.

This is certainly not the end of the fight. Continue to demand #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor; one officer's indictment is not enough.

Photo via Getty/ Jason Connolly/ AFP