Officer Involved in Breonna Taylor Shooting Fired

Brett Hankison showed 'extreme indifference to the value of human life'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jun 23, 2020 7:47 PM CDT
Officer Involved in Breonna Taylor Shooting Fired
In this June 9, 2020 photo, Kevin Peterson, center, founder and executive director of the New Democracy Coalition, displays a placard showing Breonna Taylor as he addresses a rally in Boston.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

The Louisville Metro police department has fired one of the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. A termination letter for Officer Brett Hankison released by the city’s police department Tuesday said Hankinson violated procedures by showing "extreme indifference to the value of human life" when he "wantonly and blindly" shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Taylor’s apartment in March, the AP reports. The letter also said Hankinson violated the rule against using deadly force.

Taylor, an African American nurse and EMT, was shot eight times by officers who burst into her Louisville home using a no-knock warrant during a March 13 narcotics investigation. No drugs were found at her home. Mayor Greg Fischer said last week interim Louisville police Chief Robert Schroeder had started termination proceedings for Hankison. Two other officers remain on administrative reassignment while the shooting is investigated. ("It's about damn time," an attorney for Taylor's family said when termination proceedings were announced last week.)

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