See how public figures are reacting to the decision in the Breonna Taylor case
A Jefferson County grand jury on Wednesday indicted one of three Louisville police officers involved in the March killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. A search warrant was being served at Taylor’s apartment on March 13 and she was killed when her boyfriend and the officers exchanged gunfire.
The grand jury indicted Brett Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment for firing his weapon into adjacent apartments, not for actions that contributed to Taylor’s death. Hankison was fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department in the wake of the shooting. The grand jury declined to indict the other two officers.
Many prominent figures took to social media on Wednesday to react to the decision.
Jecorey Arthur, who this summer at 28 years old became the youngest person ever elected to the Louisville Metro Council, expressed frustration on Twitter.
U.S. Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky posted four tweets about two hours after the grand jury’s decision was released. In the last of those posts, Yarmuth wrote: “I join the many who demand change so that no one has to face the same “legal” fate as Breonna Taylor, in our community or anywhere else, ever again.”
Actor George Clooney, a Kentucky native, sent a statement to The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday night.
“I was born and raised in Kentucky. Cut tobacco on the farms of Kentucky. Both my parents and my sister live in Kentucky. I own a home in Kentucky, and I was there last month,” Clooney said. “I know the commonwealth. And I was taught in the schools and churches of Kentucky what is right and what is wrong. I’m ashamed of this decision.”
New York Times columnist Charles Blow reacted to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s press conference in the wake of the decision.
Broadcaster Geraldo Rivera said on Twitter that he believed Taylor’s death was a tragedy but that the grand jury’s decision was correct. Rivera wrote: “(Breonna Taylor) is America’s sister because-unlike many recent civil rights martyrs she lived a flawless life-a first responder-an ER technician-shot 6 times in her own bed. But this tragedy was well decided by Grand Jury. Her boyfriend fired 1st at cops executing a legal warrant.”
U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell of California weighed in, tweeting: “If you agree (Breonna Taylor) should be alive today, then by extension, you agree her killers should face justice.”
United States Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote on Twitter: “Breonna Taylor’s life mattered. This result is a disgrace and an abdication of justice. Our criminal justice system is racist. The time for fundamental change is now.”
Martin Luther King III, the oldest living child of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., tweeted: “Right now, Black parents all around our country are having another version of ‘the talk’. They’re having to explain to their children that despite the broken and inhumane system, that their lives do matter. Tonight, I am praying for each of us and our nation.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 5:01 PM with the headline "See how public figures are reacting to the decision in the Breonna Taylor case."
