Grand Jury indicts former Louisville officer for wanton endangerment in Breonna Taylor fatal shooting case

A Jefferson County grand jury has indicted former Louisville Metro police detective Brett Hankison on Wednesday.

Brett Hankison indicted

Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment.

He was not indicted for the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. Hankison was charged for his actions, for shooting rounds into neighboring apartments.

The two other officers involved in the case, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, were not charged.

Wanton endangerment

A wanton endangerment charge is a class D felony and carries a penalty of one to five years in prison.

The announcement comes more than six months after Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT and aspiring nurse, was shot to death by Louisville Metro police officers in her home.

The officers broke down the door to her apartment while executing a late-night, “no-knock” warrant in a narcotics investigation on March 13.

Kentucky General Attorney Daniel Cameron was made a special prosecutor in the case in May, and the FBI opened an investigation as well.

“The decision before my office is not to decide if the loss of Breonna Taylor’s life was a tragedy,” he said during Wednesday’s press conference. “The answer to that question is unequivocally yes.”

Cameron called the Taylor’s death “a gut-wrenching emotional case” where “the pain is understandable.” He defended the length of the investigation, saying the time reflected “how important it was to get this right.”

“I know that not everyone will be satisfied,” he said of the grand jury decision. “Our job is to present the facts to the grand jury, and the grand jury then applies the facts … If we simply act on outrage, there is no justice. Mob justice is not justice. Justice sought by violence is not justice. It just becomes revenge.”

Brett Hankison fired

In June, Det. Brett Hankison was fired for “wantonly and blindly” firing into Taylor’s apartment, Louisville’s police chief said. Six officers involved in the incident are under internal investigation, LMPD said on Tuesday.

The city of Louisville announced on Sept. 15 a historic $12 million settlement of the family’s wrongful death lawsuit.

The city also agreed to enact police reform policies which include using social workers to provide support on certain police runs and requiring commanders to review and approve search warrants before seeking judicial approval.