The Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, is reportedly going to announce his decision in the shooting death of Louisville woman Breonna Taylor, 26. This is expected to happen at 1:30 pm ET on Wednesday. You can watch the live stream in the player above.
This information comes from The Louisville Courier-Journal. Cameron spokeswoman Elizabeth Kuhn declined to comment, but Kentucky State Police vehicles were blocking off the Kentucky History Center in the capital city of Frankfort. The museum announced it was closed. The nearby daycare, the Wesley Center Day School, also said it would close early.
Taylor family attorney Lonita Baker said the attorney general’s office had not told them anything about the decision, including the time of the announcement, as of 10:30 a.m. ET.
This development follows increased security by authorities in the area, in anticipation of Cameron making an announcement this week.
Attention: Anyone with upcoming business downtown #LMPD pic.twitter.com/FL37wjGpBj
— LMPD (@LMPD) September 22, 2020
Three Louisville police officers are said to have opened fire at Taylor’s apartment when cops executed a no-knock warrant on March 13 in regard to a drug case: Sgt. Jon Mattingly, Detective Myles Cosgrove, and Detective Brett Hankison.
The victim’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker had opened fire; he said he did not know these were law enforcement. His bullet struck Mattingly in the leg. Police killed Taylor when they opened fire.
Walker said that police did not announce themselves before the exchange of gunfire. Cops said they did.
Prosecutors initially charged Walker in an attempted murder case in the shooting of Mattingly, but that case was ultimately dropped. Taylor’s family said she had no connection to drugs.
Jamarcus Glover, the victim’s ex-boyfriend, was the actual subject of the drug investigation. He declined a plea deal in which he would have implicated Taylor.
“We are outraged that prosecutors would attempt to justify Breonna Taylor’s death by leaning on Jamarcus Glover to falsely state – after her death – that she was part of an organized crime syndicate,” said Taylor family attorney Ben Crump in a September 1 statement obtained by Law&Crime. “This is why the Black community has no trust in America’s justice system. It’s enormously ironic that the accused drug dealer here acted with honor, refusing to falsely discredit Bre after her death – even when offered the temptation of no prison time for lying, while prosecutors and police acted in the most egregiously dishonest and dishonorable way possible. The police killed Bre once, and now they’re trying to kill her again by killing her reputation and her good name. Disgusting behavior by those who are supposed to be the protectors of justice.”
The case landed on a cultural fissure: the ongoing national debate over how law enforcement treats people of color, especially Black people. Taylor was Black. So is Walker, Glover, and Cameron.
Cosgrove, Mattingly, and four other detectives are being investigated by the Louisville Metro Police Department’s professional standards unit. Hankison was terminated from the agency over the shooting. Then-Interim Police Chief Robert J. Schroeder accused him in June of “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment.
There is likely to be pushback from at least some in law enforcement if charges are filed against any police in Taylor’s case. Mattingly released a statement early Tuesday morning, claiming “pencil pushers” in command abandoned rank and file police.
New: LMPD Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly (who is being investigated as part of Breonna Taylor’s case) sent an email to around 1,000 officers at 2am that calls protestors thugs, complains about the government enforcing civil rights violations, and claims this is “good versus evil” pic.twitter.com/VcuyPDP790
— Roberto Aram Ferdman (@robferdman) September 22, 2020
“Regardless of the outcome today or Wednesday, I know we did the legal, moral and ethical thing that night,” he wrote. “It’s sad how the good guys are demonized, and criminals are canonized.”
[Featured post image via Ben Crump]
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