Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced Friday that one of the three police officers who discharged their weapons during the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor will be fired, reports the Courier-Journal.
Why it matters: Calls for the officers involved in the shooting to be fired or arrested have grown on social media in recent days.
- Robert Schroeder, the city's interim police chief, said the officer, Brett Hankinson, "wantonly and blindly" fired 10 rounds into Taylor's apartment in a letter detailing Hankinson's firing.
- "I find your conduct a shock to the conscience. ... I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion," Schroeder wrote.
- "The result of your action seriously impedes the department's goal of providing the citizens of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible. I cannot tolerate this type of conduct by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department. ... Your conduct demands your termination."
The big picture, via Axios' Rebecca Falconer: Taylor's death prompted protests across Louisville and became a focal point of the Black Lives Matter protests.
- Police who entered Taylor's home were investigating two men they believed to be selling drugs out of a house 10 miles away.
- Officers used a battering ram to break down her door despite the fact that she was not a main suspect and shot her at least eight times after her boyfriend, who was awakened by the incident, fired his gun in self-defense.
- The department's incident report for the shooting listed Taylor's injuries as "none," prompting widespread outrage.
The state of play: Fischer declined further comment and refused to share more information on additional steps that the department or city might take.
- "Unfortunately, due to a provision in state law that I would very much like to see changed, both the chief and I are precluded from talking about what brought us to this moment or even the timing of this decision," he said.
