Breonna Taylor: Prosecutors want Louisville shooting detective to be tried

The Kentucky attorney general’s office asked a judge this week to uphold the trial of one of the officers involved in the Breonna Taylor shooting in Louisville, citing a “large and diverse” pool of jurors, according to a report.

Former det. Brett Hankison was charged with gratuitous endangerment last September for shooting in an apartment next to Taylor and showing “extreme indifference to human life”. A man, a pregnant woman and a child were inside the apartment. He also shot in another empty apartment.

Taylor’s death has become an integral part of the fight against police brutality and racial justice protests that swept the country last year, stirred by the death in custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May after that an officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

Last month, Hankison’s attorney Stew Mathews argued his trial should take place in a different county because he claimed the former detective had been portrayed in a negative light by the media, which could harm to his jury and “irreparably harm” his chance for trial, WDRB-TV reported in Louisville.

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He told Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Ann Bailey Smith the “media circus” and portrayed his client in a “false and negative light”.

The request was rejected by Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office, claiming that Matthews had failed to show conclusively that “public opinion is so excited in the county that it reasonably prevents a fair trial” and noting that potential jurors will be questioned about possible pre-trial bias.

The Kentucky Supreme Court recently upheld a judge’s decision to keep the trial in Jefferson County, adding that moving it to another county would likely cause “hardship” for lay witnesses and victims, all of whom live there. Louisville, reported the WDRB.

Hankison and two other Louisville Metro Police officers, McKenzie Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, were involved in the fatal shooting of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency technician, in her apartment on March 13, 2020, following the incident. an anti-drug raid. . No drugs were found inside.

None of the officers have been charged with Taylor’s murder, sparking a new wave of protests and criticism.

Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired a warning shot when officers entered because he believed he and Taylor were being robbed, his lawyer said. The officers, who later said they announced their entry, fired back, hitting Taylor. Walker shot one of the officers in the leg.

FBI ballistics experts determined that one of Cosgrove’s bullets had killed her.

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Jefferson County, which includes Lousiville, has the highest percentage of black residents in the state, around 22%, the WDRB reported, compared to less than 13% in all other counties in the state.