Ever since the death of Breonna Taylor last March, calls for justice continue to be heard in a country plagued by social unrest. This week, two Kentucky jurors have finally spoken on the decision to not charge the three police officers involved in the raid. They described their actions that night as “criminal” and “negligent”.
What We Know:
- During an interview on CBS This Morning with Gayle King, two jurors were asked their thoughts of “the police behavior and actions” on March 13th. The jurors’ faces were blurred to hide identities and they are the first of a dozen people from the grand jury to speak. This is the first time the jurors broke their silence since the September 23rd ruling.
- This development comes amid the increasing call to release grand jury records to the public after jurors disputed how Attorney General Daniel Cameron handled the case.
- A majority of the interview focused on King and the two jurors, referred to as No. 1 and No. 2, sharing their honest thoughts on how they would assess the police’s actions in the incident of Taylor’s Louisville home, where she was shot five times after a mishandled no-knock raid.
- “Negligent,” stated the first of the jurors. “They couldn’t even provide a risk assessment and it sounded like they hadn’t done one. So their organization leading up to this was lacking. That’s what I mean by they were negligent in the operation.”
- Grand juror No. 2 did not hesitate to back up the first juror’s remarks. They said the officers were “criminal” for their actions. “They were criminal leading up to this in everything that they [did],” the juror said. “The way they moved forward on it, including the warrant, was deception.”
- The two grand jurors previously called out Cameron for stating that the reason the officers couldn’t be charged before for their actions was that they claimed it was in self-defense after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire. The jurors now bring up the point that they were in fact not given a proper opportunity to discuss murder-related charges.
- As we previously reported, former officer Brett Hankison was eventually fired from duty. Cameron also served as a special prosecutor in his case. The grand jury has since charged him with three counts of wanton endangerment, of which he pleaded not guilty.
Aside from Hankison, the other two officers involved, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, remain in the police force. According to ballistics tests, Cameron was able to conclude that it was Cosgrove who fired both a shot into Walker’s leg and the fatal shot that unfortunately ended Taylor’s life. It was later revealed that the same officer tried to raise money to retire shortly after the incident.
