The grand jury in the Breonna Taylor case will present their findings to a judge this afternoon and an announcement from Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron will follow.
The Administrative Office of the Courts announced that the jury will present its findings at 1:15 p.m. before Judge Annie O’Connell.
An announcement from Cameron is expected to follow, from the Kentucky History Center in Frankfort.
In preparation for the announcement,Louisville police have limited access to downtown and officials have closed federal buildings.
Taylor was killed by Louisville Metro Police officers during a middle-of-the night raid on her apartment on March 13. Though Taylor wasn’t the main target, police had obtained a “no-knock” warrant for her apartment based on her connections to an alleged drug dealer. The 26-year-old emergency room technician was home with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, that night. When plainclothes police arrived, they did knock on the door, but whether they identified themselves as law enforcement officers is disputed.
As police broke the door down, Walker, a licensed gun owner, fired a shot and hit one of the officers in the leg. Three officers responded with gunfire, hitting Taylor five times and killing her.
In the aftermath of Taylor’s death, people have protested in Louisville for more than 100 days, calling for the three officers involved in Taylor’s death to be fired and charged with murder. One of the officers — Brett Hankison — was fired in June for his role in the shooting. At the time, interim police chief Robert Schroeder said that Hankison’s actions “displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly fired ten (10) rounds into the apartment of Breonna Taylor on March 13, 2020.” Hankison has since appealed that decision.
Attorneys for Taylor’s family and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced a settlement last week in the civil case stemming from her death. Under the agreement, the city will pay $12 million and make several changes to police policies. But at the announcement, Taylor’s mother and her lawyers were clear: the civil settlement is a first step, but criminal consequences for the officers involved in the raid are necessary, too.
The decision whether the officers will face criminal charges in connection with the incident will fall to Attorney General Daniel Cameron and a grand jury. Cameron’s office was tasked with reviewing the Louisville Metro Police Department’s internal investigation into Taylor’s killing; this would have typically fallen to Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine, but Wine recused himself from the case because at the time he was prosecuting Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. Those charges have since been dismissed.
