The Justice Department alleged Thursday that two Louisville police detectives met in a garage just months after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor and agreed to mislead investigators looking into the botched raid that resulted in her death.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department has charged four current and former Louisville police officers in connection with Taylor’s death at a press conference on Monday.
Louisville police are accused of fabricating an affidavit to obtain a search warrant for Taylor’s home, a violation of civil rights laws, according to Garland.
Garland claimed that Taylor’s death was the result of “those violations.”
He opined that Breonna Taylor “should be alive” right now.
Ex-detective Joshua Jaynes and Detective Kelly Goodlett were accused of falsifying an affidavit as investigators examined the shooting, according to court documents.
Garland claims the two met in May of 2020 and decided to fabricate a “false story.”
More than two years after the shooting of Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who was sleeping with her boyfriend when Louisville police officers broke into her apartment, charges have been filed against the officers.
Her boyfriend fired at the officers because he thought they were intruders.
According to Garland, two police officers responded by firing 22 rounds into the apartment.
It was one of those shots that killed Ms. Taylor, he said.
Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police detective, has been charged by federal prosecutors with using excessive force during the raid on Taylor’s home.
Hankison allegedly fired 10 shots through a bedroom window and sliding glass door, both of which were covered with blinds and curtains, causing bullets to pierce the wall of Taylor’s home and enter her neighbors’ apartment.
The assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division Kristen Clarke said, “Community safety dictates that police officers use their weapons only when necessary to defend their own lives or the lives of others and,
even then, that they must do so with great care and caution.” Breanna Taylor and her guest, as well as her neighbors, were threatened by bullets that entered their apartment through Hankison’s excessive force, according to today’s indictment.”
When it came time to get a search warrant for Taylor’s home, one more Louisville cop, Sgt. Kyle Meany was arrested. According to the prosecution,
Meany and Jaynes were aware of the affidavit’s false and misleading statements, omitted important facts, and relied on stale information.
Jaynes and Meany are also accused of knowing that the search would be carried out by armed Louisville police officers—and that conducting that search could create a dangerous situation for anyone who was in Ms. Taylor’s home.”
“No stone was left unturned” in Clarke’s investigation, which resulted in the charges.
She also mentioned that the Justice Department is still investigating the Louisville Police Department for possible patterns of misconduct related to civil rights. If you read more interesting news like this so you can visit TheActiveNews.Com.