Four Police Officers Charged In Breonna Taylor Killing

Four Louisville police officers involved in the deadly Breonna Taylor raid with civil rights violations have been charged.

Federal charges made by The US Justice Department were against former officers Joshua Jaynes, Brett Hankison and Kelly Goodlett, along with Sergeant Kyle Meany were announced by US attorney general Merrick Garland on Thursday (4 August).

He said federal officials 'share but cannot fully imagine the grief' felt by Ms Taylor’s family.

“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” he said.

Ms Taylor, a 26-year-old black medical worker, was shot by officers who had knocked down her door while executing a search warrant. 

Her boyfriend fired a shot that hit one of the officers as they came through the door and they returned fire, striking her multiple times.

Hankison, who was dismissed from the department in 2020, was one of the officers at Ms Taylor’s door and one of three who fired shots that night. 

He was acquitted by a jury of state charges of wanton endangerment earlier this year in Louisville.

Jaynes applied for the warrant to search Ms Taylor’s house. He was fired in January 2021 by former Louisville Police interim chief Yvette Gentry for violating department standards in the preparation of a search warrant execution and for being 'untruthful' in the Taylor warrant.