First Published:
2:38 PM PDT, August 5, 2022
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has defended his office’s investigation into the actions of law enforcement the night Breonna Taylor was fatally shot in the wake of federal charges being brought against four current and former Louisville police officers in connection to Taylor’s death.
Headed by Cameron, the initial investigation into the Breonna Taylor case in 2020 led to the indictment of Brett Hankison. Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment due to stray shots hitting a neighbor’s house before being acquitted of all charges. No charges were connected to Taylor’s death.
“As in every prosecution, our office supports the impartial administration of justice, but it is important that people not conflate what happened… with the state law investigation undertaken by our office,” Cameron wrote in a statement released on social media.
“Our primary task was to investigate whether the officers who executed the search warrant were criminally responsible for Ms. Taylor’s death under state law,” Cameron explained on Twitter.
“At the conclusion of our investigation, our prosecutors submitted the information to a state grand jury, which ultimately resulted in criminal charges being brought against Mr. Brett Hankison for wanton endangerment. I’m proud of the work of our investigators and prosecutors.”
The family of Taylor and their attorney told WLKY they believed Cameron lacked depth in his investigation. According to a background document from Cameron’s office obtained by WLKY, the only thing initially under investigation from the night Taylor was killed was if any of the officers who fired their guns violated any laws, not any claims of civil negligence.
Hankison, along with Joshua Jaynes, Sgt. Kyle Meany and Kelly Goodlett are now facing federal charges for alleged civil rights violations in connection to raiding Taylor’s home.
The charges coming from the U.S Department of Justice are connected to the shots fired into Taylor’s home by Hankinson and to the other three officers’ roles in the drafting of the warrant. These charges were given to the other three officers on the basis that the warrant ultimately led to Taylor’s death due to the dangerous situation it created, authorities said.
Cameron closed out his statement by saying, “there are those, however, who want to use this moment to divide Kentuckians, misrepresent the facts of the state investigation, and broadly impugn the character of our law enforcement community.
“I won’t participate in that sort of rancor. It’s not productive,” he continued. “Instead, I’ll continue to speak with the love and respect that is consistent with our values as Kentuckians.”
