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Louisville police move to fire 2 officers over Breonna Taylor shooting

30 December 2020
Dan Ackermann

The Louisville Metro Police Department on Tuesday notified two detectives connected to the police shooting of Breonna Taylor that they would be fired, the Courier-Journal reports.

Why it matters: If fired, they would be the latest officers held accountable in the shooting that set off weeks of protests in the city and inspired nationwide demonstrations.

Context: Taylor was shot dead by police on March 13 when LMPD officers conducting a narcotics investigation barged into the 26-year-old's home in plain-clothes to serve a "no-knock" warrant.

  • Police exchanged fire with Taylor's boyfriend, who said he fired believing the home was being broken into.
  • Protests over Taylor's death erupted in Louisville in May following the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. The Louisville Metro Council has since banned no-knock warrants.

The big picture: Detective Joshua Jaynes received a pretermination letter Tuesday from interim Chief Yvette Gentry after an internal investigation found he had violated department procedures while preparing the no-knock search warrant for Taylor's apartment, according to the Courier-Journal.

  • Detective Myles Cosgrove, who the FBI concluded fired the shot that killed Taylor, also received a pretermination letter.
  • A grand jury in September indicted detective Brett Hankison on three counts of wanton endangerment for firing shots blindly into neighboring apartments while entering Taylor's home.

Of note: Jaynes and his lawyer have a closed hearing with interim Chief Gentry staff Thursday morning to convince the chief that his firing is unwarranted.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.