St. Paul mayor reacts to Breonna Taylor case: 'Most people would’ve been charged with murder'
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter spoke out on social media Wednesday in response to a Kentucky grand jury’s decision not to indict any police officers on charges directly related to the death of Breonna Taylor.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by Louisville police officers who entered her home after midnight on March 13 during a narcotics investigation.
“[Breonna Taylor] was at home. In bed. Sleeping. And killed in the middle of the night by men who busted in her door and shot ‘wantonly and blindly’ into her home,” Carter wrote on Twitter. “A competent justice system must be capable of calling that what [it] is, even/especially when her killers wore badges.”
The officers fired after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot that struck an officer. Walker said he did not know police were at the door and thought it was an intruder.
“[Breonna Taylor’s] boyfriend called 911 to report the shooting - he still didn’t know they were police officers,” Carter said. “To call her death justified because he defended their ‘castle’ establishes a scary precedent that *should* offend all the 2nd Amendment defenders. I’ll wait.”
The grand jury indicted one of the three officers involved, Officer Brett Hankinson, with three counts of wanton endangerment for shooting into neighboring apartments, but did not charge any of the officers directly in Taylor’s death.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Hankison and the two other officers who entered Taylor’s apartment announced themselves before entering the apartment and did not use a no-knock warrant.
“Most people would’ve been charged with murder,” Carter said of the grand jury's decision. “[Breonna Taylor] is yet more proof that officers enjoy a much different justice system than the rest of us. Our work to build trust between community and law enforcement will ring hollow across the country until that changes.”
Protests erupted in cities across the country Wednesday following the announcement of the grand jury’s decision in the Breonna Taylor case. In Minnesota, protesters gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol and marched down University Avenue and eventually onto Interstate 94 calling for justice for Taylor.