One of three officers involved in the Louisville, Ky., drug operation that led to the police shooting death of Breonna Taylor in March 2020 was indicted Wednesday on criminal charges.
www.foxnews.com
Too much? Not enough?
It is difficult for me to determine if it is too much or not enough.
I know that Breonna Taylor was at that time, according to police knowledge, a drug dealer. She was holding and delivering money, holding and delivering drugs, for her ex-boyfriend with whom she still had a business arrangement. Though she was not on the streets herself doing wholesale and retail drug dealing, she was nevertheless, as the police evidence indicated, part of the operation, administratively and from a warehousing aspect .. as a drug dealer.
That's the reason the police were there in the first place. And, because they suspected she was part of the operation, that's why they were initially provided a no-knock entry (though it was changed to a knock-announce and then force entry right before the action took place).
So the grand jury determines yes, they did announce, they did knock, then they immediately rammed the door down, around midnight, and both Taylor and her new boyfriend were awake, I think I recalled that they were both dressed, and it all happened so fast that her boyfriend fired a shot first and hit one of the three police officers in the leg.
So the police officers, having reason to think they were in a drug dealing den, started shooting back at the people in front of them with the gun from where the shot originated.
I don't know how many officers fired how many shots. I read one account where 20 shots were fired.
Somehow the boyfriend missed being hit as he hit the ground .. leaving Taylor exposed.
I would surmise the grand jury found that the return fire in the direction of the gun that fired at them caught Taylor who was apparently not on the ground .. hitting her six times .. as the quick, quick action of the police returning fire in self-defense ended her life.
Then, I'm surmising, the one officer indicted for wanton endangerment went down the hall firing into the other rooms as he approached the entrances to them, the bathroom, and others, his bullets penetrating the walls and coming close to hitting other people in the adjoining apartments .. .. for which he was indicted.
The other two police officers were not indicted.
No officer was indicted for anything linked to Taylor's death.
So, what is her death ruled? Not a murder. Not a manslaughter. I'm curious. But, whatever it is, it is clearly in association with her being a criminal suspect.
I guess, as I talk this out, it is just really, really sad for Taylor, that she couldn't make the decision to leave the drug dealing business .. that got her killed. It sounds like she had a promising life otherwise in healthcare.
I think the grand jury made the right decisions. The officer who fired into the other rooms without first making sure there was anyone there to fire at endangered the lives of adjacent-apartment people, and he did so wantonly, beyond recklessness, they concluded.
But no charges on the other two officers .. and, do they even know whose bullets hit Taylor -- it was probably from multiple guns .. and I believe, all circumstances considered, no charges on the other two officers is the right decision.