A federal judge has lowered the charges against two former officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor in her Louisville home in 2020. In his ruling on Aug. 22, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Charles Simpson III said Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker caused the shooting.
According to the Courier Journal, the judge said Walker’s decision to shoot at Detective Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany during the raid forced the officers to fire back. The two former Louisville Metro Police Department officers are dismissed of “felony deprivation of rights under the color of law charges.”
Jaynes and Meany were previously charged for approving a search warrant despite knowing there was a false affidavit. On March 13, 2020, after midnight, both officers showed up wearing plainclothes to raid Taylor’s apartment for narcotics. No drugs were found. When Walker fired his handgun, thinking the officers were intruders, they responded with 32 shots — several of which fatally truck Taylor.
While prosecutors argued that the officers’ entry caused Taylor’s death, Simpson said Walker’s decision to fire back was the “legal cause of her death.” The judge added that the officers shot back to defend themselves, not to “facilitate, further, or aid in conducting the search itself.”
Prosecutors argued that the officers already had their guns drawn as they entered their home. The judge, however, insisted that it was “self-protection, not facilitating the allegedly unlawful search.”
Shortly after Taylor’s death, Walker faced assault charges and attempted murder of a police officer. However, those charges were dismissed in 2021. Walker received $2 million in 2022 after prevailing in the civil lawsuits he filed against Louisville and the officers involved.
Despite last week’s ruling, Jaynes and Meany still face civil rights charges, CNN reported. They could be sentenced to years in prison.
