Breonna Taylor: Kentucky AG undecided on charging cops involved in shooting, says won't bow to Beyonce's letter
In a shocker to the aggrieved family of slain Breonna Taylor, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is yet to make a decision on whether or not to charge the policemen who fatally shot her on March 13. On June 18, Cameron, also an African-American like Taylor, said he would not bow under pressure while carrying out the probe with the letter he received from music icon Beyonce. Queen Bey penned an open letter to Cameron, 34, on June 14, calling for criminal charges against three Louisville Metro Police officers involved in the shooting of 26-year-old Taylor during a no-knock search mission.
Taylor was shot eight times when three plain-clothed officers performed a no-knock arrest at her residence in Louisville. According to the cops, Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker started firing at them when they entered the duo’s apartment to investigate drug offenses. Charges against Walker were dropped later.
Taylor's family later said that neither she, a reputed EMT, nor Walker used drugs, and defended the latter firing saying he took the cops as intruders. None of the three cops involved in the incident — Jonathan Mattingly, Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison — have been fired yet even though calls for their arrest and trial have been growing. The US has been witnessing serious protests in favor of black lives since the brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police last month. Countrywide violence erupted, which was fuelled by another fatal police firing in Atlanta, Georgia, in which a black man named Rayshard Brooks perished.
But it seems Cameron is little touched by the protests. Saying that he is yet to take a call on whether charges should be brought against the cops in Taylor's case, he said: "Our office is undertaking a thorough and fair investigation. We are working around the clock to follow the law to the truth. Everyone involved in this case deserves nothing less. An investigation of this magnitude requires time and patience... however I can assure you, that at the end of our investigation, we will do what is right. We will find the truth." Even in the case of Floyd, the authorities asked people to have patience till the investigation concluded but the pressure continued to build on them, leading to the arrest of Derek Chauvin, the cop who has been accused of murder.
Cameron said Beyonce's letter didn't make any difference
When asked about the letter from Beyonce seeking transparency, Cameron said it did not have any special effect on him. He said whether the letter came from a celebrity or a common man, he remains committed to justice. "Whether it's a celebrity or Kentuckian or any interested party. I take great care and concern in every letter we receive and completely understand the interest surrounding his case. It doesn't matter who sends me a piece of mail, it won't have any bearing on the case. Our responsibility is to the facts and the law," Cameron, a Republican and a former football player who took over in December last year, said.
Earlier this week, the Louisville Police Department released a heavily redacted report which said Taylor bore no injuries despite getting shot multiple times and though she was found in a pool of blood, Daily Mail cited witnesses as saying. Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing the families of Taylor, Floyd and also Ahmaud Arbery — another young black man who was shot dead by two white men in Georgia in February — said the city was refusing to turn over subpoenaed records.
June 19 was the deadline for the coroner’s office to hand over Taylor’s autopsy along with its communications with the government and for the cops to hand over personal files and sheets for those involved. "Of all the cities dealing with the tragedies of officer-involved shootings and violence inflicted upon black lives, Louisville’s administration has been the least transparent, the slowest and the most frustrating," Crump said in a statement.