Louisville to fire officer involved in shooting

Officer Brett Hankison violated procedure when he “wantonly and blindly fired 10 rounds into the apartment of Breonna Taylor,” interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said in a letter released on Friday. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the chief was taking steps to fire Hankison, and the city distributed the letter describing the accusations against the officer. Two other officers involved in the shooting, in which Taylor was killed on March 13, are on administrative leave.

What is happening with the case? Fischer directed all questions to the Jefferson County Attorney’s office, saying he couldn’t answer them due to state law. In the letter, Schroeder said Hankison had no way of knowing whether innocent people were present when he opened fire while serving a no-knock search warrant at Taylor’s home during a drug investigation. The officers shot Taylor eight times after her boyfriend fired at the police, allegedly in self-defense. Louisville has since banned no-knock warrants.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Stew about the police reform efforts on Capitol Hill.