The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office has asked a judge this week to hold the trial for one of the officers involved in the Breonna Taylor shooting in Louisville, citing a ‘large and diverse’ pool of judges. , according to a report.
Former Det. Brett Hankison was charged with fraud in September last year for shooting in an apartment next to Taylor’s and showing ‘extremely indifferent to human life’. A man, a pregnant woman and a child were in the apartment. He also shot in another empty apartment.
Taylor’s death became an integral part of the fight against police brutality and anti-racial protests that dominated the country last year. The assault of police officer George Floyd in Minneapolis in May last year after an officer knelt on his neck for a few minutes.
Last month, Hankison’s lawyer, Stew Mathews, argued that his trial should take place in another country because he claimed the former detective was portrayed in a negative light, which could harm his jury and irreparably increase his chances of a fair trial. impair. trial, reports WDRB-TV in Louisville.
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Former Det. Brett Hankison was charged with unreasonable threat last fall.
(Louisville Metro Police Department)
He told Judge Ann Bailey Smith, Jefferson Circuit Court, the ‘media circus’ and portrayed his client in a ‘false and negative light’.
Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office rejected the request, saying Matthews did not unequivocally show that “public opinion in the country was so upbeat that it could justify a fair trial” and pointed it out. has that potential jurors will be questioned about possible prejudice before the trial.
The Kentucky Supreme Court recently upheld a judge’s decision to hold the trial in Jefferson County, adding that moving it to another state is likely to cause “suffering” for lay witnesses and victims, all of whom lives in Louisville, reports WDRB.
Hankison and two other Louisville police officers, McKenzie Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, were involved in the fatal shooting of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency technician, in her apartment on March 13, 2020, after an unsuccessful drug attack. . No drugs were found inside.
None of the officers were charged with the murder of Taylor, and caused another wave of protests and criticism.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a warning shot when officers entered because he thought he and Taylor were being robbed, his lawyer said. The officers, who later said they had announced their entry, shot back and beat Taylor. Walker shot one of the officers in the leg.
FBI ballistics experts have determined that one of Cosgrove’s bullets killed her.
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Jefferson County, which includes Lousiville, has the highest percentage of black residents in the state, about 22%, reports WDRB, compared to less than 13% in every other province in the state.