Beshear calls on Kentucky AG to release findings of Breonna Taylor investigation
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on Attorney General Daniel Cameron Wednesday afternoon to publicly release his investigative findings into the killing of Breonna Taylor.
Beshear said he previously made the “suggestion” that Cameron consider releasing more information, “but now I’m making the request: post online all evidence and facts he can release without impacting the three felony counts in the indictment issued today.”
Earlier Wednesday, Cameron and a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge said only one of the officers involved in the March killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville would be criminally charged. Former Det. Brett Hankison was indicted by a grand jury for three first-degree counts of wanton endangerment, not for shooting into Taylor’s apartment, but for firing into neighboring apartments during a botched drug raid.
Beshear implored Cameron to release the evidence collected by his office for the grand jury, including the ballistics report: “Those that are currently feeling frustration, feeling hurt, they deserve to know more. Everyone can and should be informed,” Beshear said. “I believe the ability to process those facts helps everybody.”
The governor also called on Cameron to reveal the racial makeup of the grand jury — demographics Cameron declined to release earlier in the day.
The other two officers who fired their weapons into Taylor’s apartment that night in March — Det. Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly — were not indicted Wednesday because they were “trying to protect themselves,” Cameron said in his news conference. The pair “were justified in their return of deadly fire after being fired upon” by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who said he mistook them for intruders when they broke down Taylor’s door serving a warrant.
Hankison was fired by Louisville Metro Police earlier this year for “blindly firing 10 rounds” through windows and walls of multiple apartments. The LMPD chief said Hankison’s actions showed an “extreme indifference to the value of human life.” A warrant was issued for Hankison’s arrest and a bond set for $15,000.
In anticipation of protests, Beshear authorized a limited deployment of the National Guard in Louisville. Those troops will remain under the command of the guard, not LMPD, he said.
Even before Cameron finished his announcement mid-afternoon, protesters had already amassed in Kentucky’s largest city to repeat their calls for justice. Over the last four months, protesters across Kentucky and the country have decried Taylor’s killing as yet another example of racial violence and brutality at the hands of law enforcement. Beshear has repeatedly acknowledged that reality, saying Wednesday, “systemic racism exists in this world, in this country and in this commonwealth.”
Cameron seemed to push back against framing Taylor’s killing that way during his announcement. “Do we want the facts, or are we content to blindly accept our own version of events?” he said. “We must also remember the facts in the collection of evidence in this case are different than cases elsewhere in the country. Each is unique and cannot be compared.”
The governor shared his platform Wednesday afternoon with J. Michael Brown, his executive cabinet secretary, and state Rep. Charles Booker, a Louisville Democrat who lost a bid in the June primary against Amy McGrath to unseat Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Booker, of the lone indictment, said, “Justice failed us today. It failed us in a way it has been failing us for generations.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 4:46 PM.
