A Louisville police officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor will be fired, Democratic Kentucky Mayor Greg Fischer said Friday.
“Termination procedures” were “initiated” against Louisville Metro Police Officer Brett Hankison by Police Chief Rob Schroeder, according to Fischer. Hankison was one of three officers who forcefully entered Taylor’s apartment March 13 and opened fire after Kenneth Walker, her boyfriend, began to shoot at them.
“Unfortunately, due to a provision in state law that I very much would like to see changed, both the Chief and I are precluded from talking about what brought us to this moment, or even the timing of this decision,” Fischer said during a press conference Friday reported by The Hill.
Taylor was shot eight times and two of the officers at her house were in plainclothes. Walker believed they were intruders after the cops entered the residence with a no-knock warrant as Taylor slept, according to The Hill. (RELATED: REPORT: Louisville Police To Change Policy After Woman Was Shot By Police In Her Home, FBI Will Investigate)
NEW: Statement from Breonna Taylor’s attorneys: “We look forward to them terminating the other officers involved in Bre’s murder. We also look forward to these officers being prosecuted for their roles in her untimely death.” https://t.co/3I2aipPRGg pic.twitter.com/8lBthZeLkk
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) June 19, 2020
Schroeder wrote in a letter to Hankison that he “blindly” fired off rounds into the apartment, The Hill reported. He called the incident “a shock to the conscience.”
“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” Schroeder wrote, according to the Courier Journal. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion. The result of your action seriously impedes the Department’s goal of providing the citizens of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible. I cannot tolerate this type of conduct by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department. Your conduct demands your termination.”
Officers Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, also involved in Taylor’s death, are on administrative reassignment.
There have been a number of calls for various police officers to be fired or charged amid the Black Lives Matter movement and associated protests following the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody.