A judge has thrown out charges against the former police officers who shot Breonna Taylor, ruling that her death was a result of her boyfriend's actions.
Taylor, 26, who was a medical worker, was fatally shot and killed in her own home by officers who'd knocked her door down while executing a search warrant on March 13, 2020.
As police entered the home, Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot that hit one of the officers and they returned fire, with bullets hitting Taylor multiple times.
According to court documents filed in 2020, Taylor was then left lying on the floor for up to six minutes without receiving any aid.
Earlier this month, US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced federal charges made by the US Justice Department against former police officers Joshua Jaynes, Brett Hankison, and Kelly Goodlett, along with Sergeant Kyle Meany in connection to the incident.
Now, charges for falsifying a search warrant have been dismissed, meaning the charges against Jaynes and Meany have been reduced to misdemeanors whereas they'd have potentially faced life in prison despite not being present at the raid or fatal shooting.
Officers Hankison and Goodlett are still facing multiple charges, with Hankinson being dismissed from the Louisville Metro Police Department in 2020. A jury acquitted him of state charges of wanton endangerment earlier this year in Louisville.
Jaynes, who is the officer who applied for the warrant to search Taylor's home, was fired in January 2021 by former Louisville Police interim chief Yvette Gentry for violating department standards in the preparation of a search warrant execution and for being 'untruthful' within the warrant itself, but was not found to be the cause of Taylor's death.
Taylor's boyfriend's actions were ruled to have been the defining factor in her death by US District Judge Charles Simpson, as he said in his ruling: "There is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Breonna's death."
While some of the charges have been dropped, Judge Simpson did not dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of making false statements to investigators.
He did, however, state that the blame for Taylor's death was her boyfriend's actions as his "conduct became the proximate, or legal, cause of Breonna's death".
Judge Simpson added: "While the indictment alleges that Jaynes and Meany set off a series of events that ended in Taylor's death, it also alleges that (Walker) disrupted those events when he decided to open fire."
The ruling comes after US Attorney General Garland brought the charges against the officers, saying that federal officials "share but cannot fully imagine the grief" Taylor's family feel, adding: "Breonna Taylor should be alive today."
The city of Louisville also agreed to pay $2million in 2022 to settle lawsuits filed by Walker in federal and state court.
.jpg_CFVqvz?tr=h-40)
.jpg_ZLsNfS?tr=h-40)
.jpg_nxOFFb?tr=h-40)
.jpg_hJdIcz?tr=h-40)
.jpg_CFVqvz?tr=h-184)
.jpg_ZLsNfS?tr=h-184)
.jpg_nxOFFb?tr=h-184)
.jpg_hJdIcz?tr=h-184)