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Police officer charged with death of African American Breonna Taylor in Kentucky

 


LOUISVILLE | A white police officer was charged Wednesday in Louisville, Ky., After the death of African-American Breonna Taylor, who was killed at her home in March in a controversial search, a move criticized by her family and protesters protesting against police violence.


Brett Hankison, one of the three implicated officers, is being prosecuted for endangering the life of another, a criminal charge short of that of homicide. He was fired from the police in June.



He was to be taken into custody and his bail was set at $ 15,000.


The 26-year-old nurse was killed in the middle of the night at her home on March 13 when the three police officers showed up with a so-called "no knock" arrest warrant, which allows entry into a home. suspect without announcing himself.


Upon their arrival, Ms. Taylor's companion opened fire with a legally owned weapon. The officers retaliated and Breonna Taylor was shot several times. His companion then explained that he believed it was a burglary, the agents not having announced. However, the latter claim to have introduced themselves before entering, a version corroborated by a witness, according to state prosecutor Daniel Cameron.


The officer fired 10 bullets, several of which ended in the apartment next to Breonna Taylor's apartment, "putting three people [present] in this apartment in serious danger of physical injury or death," said Daniel Cameron. .


His two colleagues, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, who had been laid off, were dismissed because they had fired in self-defense.


"Difficult discussion"


“Under Kentucky law, [officers] Mattingly and Cosgrove's use of force was justified for self-protection. This justification prevents us from prosecuting them for the death of Breonna Taylor, ”said the prosecutor.


The young woman's family lawyer, Ben Crump, on Twitter denounced the decision "outrageous and insulting".


The former policeman "has been indicted on three charges of endangering the life of another person. These three charges are for bullets that ended up in other apartments, but NOTHING for what happened, "to Breonna Taylor, he wrote.


The ruling is "a gross denial of justice," commented the Color Minority Rights Association NAACP.


Powerful civil rights organization ACLU, meanwhile, denounced "a rotten law enforcement and criminal justice system."


His death didn't attract much attention at first, but it has come back to center stage as part of the major anti-racist protests that have swept across the United States since the death of George Floyd, a suffocated black forty-something. by a white policeman in Minneapolis in late May.


Since then, demonstrators in Louisville have regularly denounced police brutality against the black minority.


An important security device was in place Wednesday in the city center, for fear of demonstrations that could degenerate.


The municipality, which called on the population to calm, declared a state of emergency and blocked access to the court, which was protected by plywood.


"I know that these charges announced today will not satisfy everyone," admitted Prosecutor Cameron, admitting to having had "a difficult discussion" with the family of Breonna Taylor.


He called on those demonstrating in the streets "to remember that [taking part in] peaceful marches" is their "right as American citizens [but that] to cause violence and destruction" is not.


"Seeking justice through violence is not to deliver justice, it is revenge," he said.