Brett Hankison, one of the three officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, has been fired by the department.
In a Friday letter to Hankison in which the charges against him were laid out, Interim Chief Robert Schroeder accused Hankison of "blindly" firing 10 rounds into Taylor's apartment, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
LMPD posted the letter in full on its Twitter page on Tuesday evening.
“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” Schroeder wrote. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.”
“The result of your action seriously impedes the Department's goal of providing the citizens of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible. I cannot tolerate this type of conduct by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department,” he wrote. “Your conduct demands your termination.”
Credit: Louisville Police Department via AP
Credit: Louisville Police Department via AP
On March 13, Taylor, a Black woman, was killed when LMPD officers burst into her apartment using a no-knock warrant. She was shot eight times by officers who were investigating two men who were thought to have used the 26-year-old emergency room technician’s apartment to get packages.
No drugs were found.
Since Taylor’s death, activists and others have continued to call for the arrest of the LMPD officers involved in the shooting. No such arrests have been made.
On June 12, the Louisville, Kentucky, Metro Council unanimously passed Breonna’s Law, named in Taylor’s honor. The law bans “no-knock” warrants and requires body cameras to be turned on before and after every search.
