LOUISVILLE, Ky.  (AP) – The federal government filed civil rights charges Thursday against four Louisville police officers in the drug bust that led to the death of Breonna Taylor, a black woman whose fatal shooting fueled racial justice protests that shook the nation in 2020.
The charges are another attempt to hold law enforcement accountable for the killing of the 26-year-old doctor, after one of the officers was acquitted of state charges earlier this year.
“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges, which include unlawful conspiracy, use of force and obstruction of justice.
The charges name former officers Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, along with current officers Kelly Goodlett and Sgt.  Kyle Meany.  Most of the charges stem from the flawed drug warrant used to search Taylor’s home.
Hankison was the only officer charged Thursday who was at the scene that night.  Louisville police said they are seeking to fire Goodlett and Meany.
Taylor was shot to death by officers who broke down her door while serving a search warrant.  Taylor’s friend shot one of the officers as they walked through the door, and they returned fire, hitting Taylor multiple times.
Local activists and members of Taylor’s family celebrated the charges and thanked federal officials.  Supporters gathered in a city center park and chanted: “Say her name, Breona Taylor!”
“This is a day when black women saw equal justice in America,” said family attorney Benjamin Crump.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said she waited nearly 2 1/2 years for police to be held accountable.
“Today is delayed, but it still hurts,” he said.  “You all learn today that we are not crazy.”
The Justice Department is also conducting a non-criminal investigation of the Louisville Police Department, announced last year, which is investigating whether the department has a pattern of using excessive force and conducting warrantless searches and seizures.
In the 2020 protests, Taylor’s name was often chanted along with George Floyd, who was killed less than three months after Taylor by a Minneapolis police officer in a videotaped encounter that shocked the nation.
Protesters who have taken to the streets in Louisville for months have been particularly critical of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who has presented only tentative charges against Hankison for the court to consider in 2020. Members of the grand jury later emerged to complain that the office of Cameron had prevented them from indicting the other officers involved in the raid.
“Thank God Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron didn’t get the last word on justice for Breona Taylor,” Crump said Thursday.  “We’ve always said this was a conspiracy to cover up Breonna Taylor’s death.  Today the Ministry of Justice presented the supporting documents to show that we were not crazy.”
Cameron, a Republican candidate for governor next year, said in announcing the indictment against Hankison in September 2020 that he would leave “issues of potential civil rights violations” to federal officials to investigate.  Cameron had not responded to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.
Garland said the officers who were at Taylor’s home shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020, “were not involved in the writing of the warrant and were not aware of the false and misleading statements.”
Hankison was charged with two counts of deprivation of rights, alleging that he used excessive force when he backed away from Taylor’s door, turned the corner and fired 10 shots into the side of her two-bedroom apartment.  Bullets flew into a neighbor’s apartment, nearly hitting a man.
He was acquitted by a jury of state charges earlier this year in Louisville.
A separate indictment said Jaynes and Meany knew the warrant used to search Taylor’s home had information that was “false, misleading and out of date.”  Both are charged with conspiracy and deprivation of rights.
Meany ran a police unit that focused on aggressive drug investigations.  Police served five warrants simultaneously on the night of Taylor’s raid, four of them in a concentrated area of ​​suspected drug activity and a fifth at Taylor’s apartment, nearly 10 miles (16 kilometers) away.
The warrant for Taylor’s home alleged she was receiving packages for a suspected drug dealer who was an ex-boyfriend.  The warrant, signed by Jaynes and approved by Meany, said Jaynes had confirmed with the postal service that packages for ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover were going to Taylor’s apartment.  Investigators later learned that Jaynes had not confirmed this with the postal inspector.
Jaynes was fired in January 2021 for violating department standards in preparing to execute a search warrant and for being “untruthful” on the Taylor warrant.
Janes and Goodlett allegedly conspired to falsify an investigative document written after Taylor’s death, Garland said.  Federal investigators also allege that Meany, who testified at Hankison’s trial, lied to the FBI during its investigation.
Federal officials filed a separate charge against Goodlett, alleging that she conspired with Jaynes to falsify Taylor’s warrant affidavit.
Garland claimed that Janes and Goodlett met in a garage in May 2020 “where they agreed to tell investigators a false story.”
Former Louisville police officer.  John Mattingly, who was shot at Taylor’s door, retired last year.  Another officer, Miles Cosgrove, who investigators said shot Taylor, was fired from the department in January 2021. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenny Walker, who was at her apartment that night and shot Mattingly, was charged initially for attempted murder of a police officer, but that charge was dropped after Walker told investigators he thought an intruder had broken into the apartment.
The Taylor case also prompted a review of the city’s “no-knock” warrant policy.  Officers at Taylor’s door said they knocked and announced they were police, even though the warrant didn’t require it.  Such warrants, used in drug investigations to prevent the destruction of evidence, were later banned in the city of Louisville.