More than three months after Breonna Taylor was murdered, one of the Louisville Metro police officers involved in the fatal shooting has been fired. According to a termination letter made public on Tuesday (June 23), Officer Brett Hankison was let go for violating the department’s deadly force policy, and showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life,” when he fired 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment.
“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” interim Louisville police chief Robert Schroeder said of Hankison. “Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the Department.”
The remaining officers, Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, have been placed on administrative reassignment.
Louisville police claim that they raided Taylor’s home while executing a “no-knock warrant” in a drug investigation that did not involve Taylor. The 26-year-old EMT and her boyfriend were sleeping when plainclothes officers used a battering ram to break down the apartment door. Taylor was shot at least eight times.
Issues of transparency persist in the case amid calls for all three officers to be arrested. An incident report from the police department was nearly blank and stated that Taylor sustained no injuries, despite being killed.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron asked the public for patience while the investigation continues. “I can assure you that at the end of our investigation, we will do what is right,” Cameron said at a press conference last week. “We will find the truth.”