A grand jury in Kentucky decided on Wednesday (Sept. 23) to indict one police officer with charges that do not address the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who was killed in her Louisville, Ky. home on March 13.
Former Louisville Detective Brett Hankison, who was fired in June, now faces three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, a Class D felony in the state of Kentucky “when, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person,” according to state law.
USA Today reported that while reading the charges, Judge Annie O’Connell said Hankison “wantonly shot a gun” into three apartments, of which those occupants were identified by their initials. But the initials “BT” for Breonna Taylor were not read, meaning the jury did not find Hankison to have wantonly shot in her apartment. The two other officers involved, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, were not indicted.
Alicia Keys, Common, Kirk Franklin, Ella Mai and more artists took to Twitter today to express their frustration and distress over the Kentucky grand jury’s decision that dismisses Taylor.
See the stars’ reactions below.
