Former Louisville Police Detective Brett Hankison was charged with wanton endangerment for endangering Breonna Taylor's neighbors when he murdered her. Fellow Officers Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove face no charges whatsoever, but we do feel that they are not as responsible as Hankison for her death.
Brett Hankison was a detective that failed to do basic detective work that would have led him to learn that Breonna Taylor had not been dating Jamarcus Glover for some time. Hankison had used an alleged sighting of Glover leaving Taylor's apartment in January as one of his reasons for seeking a warrant to search her apartment in March. A reasonably competent detective would have figured out if Glover was still associated with Taylor at that time. On March 13, 2020 Hankison grabbed a couple patrol officers as back up, went to Taylor's apartment in the middle of the night, and broke down her door. Witnesses differ as to whether or not the officers announced themselves as police. The officers of course say that they did and all but one of Taylor's neighbors say that they did not. Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker thought that the officers were burglars and opened fire on them. The officers then fired on the apartment through a sliding glass door and windows despite them being covered with blinds even though department policy requires that officers only fire when they have a line of sight. The shooting killed Breonna Tayor. Kenneth Walker was charged with assault and attempted murder of police officers, but the charges were later dropped. The City of Louisville fired Detective Hankison and agreed to pay Breonna Taylor's family $12 million.
Officers Mattingly and Cosgrove were not fired or charged. We believe that is because any patrol officer asked by Hankison to accompany him as backup that night would have behaved as Mattingly and Cosgrove did. It really was not their job to figure out if they were going to the right house. When a detective asks a patrol officer to accompany him as backup to help serve a no knock warrant they are not trained to ask questions. That is why we have gone soft on those two because this really is Brett Hankison's screw up. The rest of the blame falls on the City of Louisville for failing to properly train and supervise their officers. When Brett Hankison broke down Breonna Taylor's door, Kenneth Walker did what any reasonable person in his position would have done, he opened fire at the unknown strangers that were invading her home. The patrol officers then did what most people would have done when shot at, they returned fire. None of that would have happened if Hankison had done his job.
Hankison should be charged for needlessly causing the death of Breonna Taylor, but he is not being charged with wronging her at all. He is only charged with endangering her neighbors because when he fired aimlessly through blinded windows some of his bullets ended up in their apartment. What was that grand jury smoking? Obviously they were on something or the presentation made to the grand jury did not paint an accurate picture of what really happened.
In response to the failure to charge Hankison with at least manslaughter, President Donald Trump praised Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron saying "The really brilliant Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is doing a fantastic job, I think he is a star."
Public records contain the following information about former Detective Brett Hankison:
Brett Kristofer Hankison
Last Known Home Address
15 AUDREY CT
TAYLORSVILLE, KY 40071-8466
Publicly available information about Daniel Cameron can be found at https://copblaster.com/blast/25847/protesters-arrested-at-kentucky-attorney-general-daniel-camerons-home
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