LOUISVILLE, Kentucky--Two white policemen who fired into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, a Black medical worker, will not be prosecuted for her death because their use of force was justified, and a third was charged with endangering her neighbours, Kentucky's attorney general said on Wednesday.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced the Louisville grand jury's decision at a news conference, as protesters against racial injustice and police brutality massed in the streets of Kentucky's largest city. Some later clashed with police in riot gear. About a dozen people were arrested in one confrontation between hundreds of demonstrators and a group of heavily armed law enforcement officers just outside downtown Louisville ahead of a curfew at 9 p.m. EDT.
Crowds of varying sizes were also gathering in New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Chicago.
Benjamin Crump, a civil rights lawyer representing the Taylor family, said it was "outrageous" that none of the three officers involved in the March 13 police raid was criminally charged with causing Taylor's death. Taylor, 26, was killed in front of her armed boyfriend shortly past midnight after three officers forced their way into her home with a search warrant.
Former Detective Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree, an offense that ranks at the lowest level of felony crime in Kentucky and carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison. Cameron said those three counts stem from the fact that some of the rounds Hankison fired - 10 in all - travelled through Taylor's apartment into an adjacent unit where a man, a pregnant woman and a child were at home.
"If Brett Hankison's behaviour was wanton endangerment to people in neighbouring apartments, then it should have been wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylor's apartment too," Crump said of the indictment. "In fact, it should have been ruled wanton murder."
Cameron, however, said there was "no conclusive" evidence that any of Hankison's bullets struck Taylor.
The two other officers, Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, were not charged because they were justified under Kentucky law in returning fire after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at them, wounding Mattingly in the thigh, Cameron said.
"There is no doubt that this is a gut-wrenching, emotional case," Cameron, a Black Republican, said at a news conference.
Governor Andy Beshear called on Cameron to release all evidence from the investigation to benefit the public's understanding of the case. "Those feeling frustration, hurt - they deserve to know more," he said.
Protesters immediately took to the streets to express their frustration with the outcome. Hundreds marched while shouting, "No lives matter until Black lives matter." The demonstrations were mostly peaceful.
In the Highlands neighbourhood at the edge of downtown, a number of protesters threw water bottles at police, who responded by firing pepper balls into the crowd. Scuffles ensued, and some windows of area businesses were broken.
Addressing a late-afternoon news conference, Mayor Greg Fischer said the U.S. Justice Department was still investigating whether federal laws were broken in connection with Taylor's death, including possible civil rights violations, while a broader police inquiry remained under way.
"It's clear that there are policies and procedures that needed to be changed, because Breonna Taylor should still be alive," he said. "Let's turn to each other, not on each other, at this moment of opportunity."
Speaking from a campaign event in North Carolina, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said his "heart goes out" to Taylor's mother, adding in an appeal to protesters: "Do not sully her memory, or her mother's, by engaging in violence."
