The actions of Louisville, Kentucky, police on the night Breonna Taylor was fatally shot were “negligent” and “criminal,” two anonymous grand jurors in the case said in a broadcast interview to air Wednesday.
“They were criminal leading up to this in everything that they — the way they moved forward on it, including the warrant, was deception,” a man identified only as Juror No. 2 told “CBS This Morning” in an excerpt aired Tuesday.
The interview marks the first time the public is hearing directly from the anonymous grand jurors, who had previously commented through their attorney, saying the panel was not given an opportunity to consider homicide charges in the case against police officers who served a no-knock warrant at Taylor’s home during a March drug raid.
Another juror told CBS’s Gayle King the behavior and actions of the police were “negligent.”
“They couldn’t even provide a risk assessment and it sounded like they hadn’t done one,” Juror No. 1 told King. “So their organization leading up to this was lacking. That’s what I mean by they were negligent in the operation.”
CBS said it blurred the faces of the anonymous grand jurors “for their safety.”
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron‘s office declined comment on Tuesday, referring to a statement last week in which the special prosecutor said he asked for an indictment on charges that could be proven under state law.
Taylor, 26, was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department officers who broke down her apartment door as they served a no-knock warrant on March 13.
The unusual statements — grand jury proceedings are intended to be secret, with some exceptions — followed a recent ruling from Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Annie O’Connell and shed further light on a case that has led to protests across the country and exemplified the ways that the “war on drugs” disproportionately hurts Black Americans.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear last week called on the state attorney general to release “all information” related to the Taylor grand jury proceedings after the second anonymous juror issued a statement saying the panel was not given an opportunity to consider homicide charges.
A state court judge ruled last week that the grand jurors may speak publicly about the case presented by Attorney General Cameron.
“The grand jury did not have homicide offenses explained to them,” the first anonymous grand juror wrote in a statement issued by attorney Kevin Glogower. “The grand jury never heard about those laws. Self-defense or justification was never explained either.”
A second grand juror echoed that statement last Thursday. The second panel member said the jury was only allowed to consider three wanton endangerment charges against one officer.
“No opportunity to consider anything else was permitted,” the grand juror said, adding that they agreed “wholeheartedly” with the first juror’s statement and looked “forward to continuing to help set the record straight.”
The first grand juror said “questions were asked about additional charges” and that members were told “there would be none because the prosecutors didn’t feel they could make them stick.”
“The grand jury didn’t agree that certain actions were justified, nor did it decide the indictment should be the only charges in the Breonna Taylor case,” the first juror said. “The grand jury was not given the opportunity to deliberate on those charges and deliberated only on what was presented to them. I can’t speak for other jurors, but I can help the truth be told.”
Cameron, in a statement posted on Twitter last week, said he asked the grand jury for an indictment on charges he thought could be proven in court.
“Indictments obtained in the absence of sufficient proof under the law do not stand up and are not fundamentally fair to anyone,” he wrote.
He also wrote that “causation, justification and (other legal issues) were always at the forefront” of his office’s investigation.
The attorney general has acknowledged wanton endangerment was the only charge his prosecutors recommended to the grand jury. Cameron has said prosecutors presented all evidence, even though the facts showed use of force by two officers not charged was “justified” because they were fired upon.
Sam Aguiar, a lawyer for Taylor’s family, said in a statement last week: “Daniel Cameron should be ashamed of himself. He made a decision based upon a political agenda.”
Aguiar added that Cameron, a rising star in the Republican Party, “tried to hide behind secrecy rules and now his lies got exposed. Everything he’s done has been an abuse of the system. Breonna’s Taylor’s family deserves and is entitled to a prosecutor committed to doing the job with morals, ethics and a commitment to the law.”
The first anonymous grand juror has suggested that Cameron may have misrepresented to the public the case presented to the panel, according the juror’s attorney.
Cameron’s office had requested a stay of any court order allowing the juror to speak out publicly until after a potential state appeal.
The state argued that allowing the grand juror to speak may compromise the right to a fair trial for former officer Brett Hankison.
But O’Connell said Hankison did not join the argument or raise the issue himself, so she ruled that she cannot find that the concern is “founded in reality.”
Hankison was charged with three counts of felony wanton endangerment, but none of the officers involved in the raid was directly charged with Taylor’s death. Hankison has pleaded not guilty to those charges. No other officers were charged.
Cameron has argued that the officers who shot at Taylor were justified in doing so because Taylor’s boyfriend had shot at them first, wounding one of the officers.
Some legal experts have said it’s curious Cameron didn’t seek any of Kentucky’s homicide charges to begin with. And CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates said earlier this month that it’s rare for grand juries to go beyond the statutes a prosecutor presents.
Cameron led the investigation into the police killing and presented evidence in the case to a Jefferson County grand jury over two-and-a-half days.
After a court ordered Cameron to do so, the Attorney General released roughly 15 hours of audio recorded while jurors reviewed evidence, like 911 calls and body camera videos, and asked questions.
The recordings do not include juror deliberations or prosecutors’ recommendations and statements, Cameron said.
Regulators authorized AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for use in adults throughout the European Union on Friday, amid criticism the bloc is not moving fast enough to vaccinate its population.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI lawyer was sentenced to probation for altering an email that the Justice Department relied on during its surveillance of an aide to President Donald Trump during the Russia investigation.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Tony Evers lashed out Friday at rival Republicans who tried to repeal his statewide mask mandate, saying killing the order would be a ridiculous move comparable to abolishing speed limits.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As some conservatives in South Carolina celebrated getting a bill that would ban almost all abortions in the state past a legislative barrier and likely becoming law, they said they are not finished trying to end all abortions.
A Moscow court on Friday put the brother and several allies of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny under house arrest for two months as authorities sought to stymie more protests over the jailing of the top Kremlin foe.