Violence erupts in Louisville after only 1 cop indicted in Breonna Taylor case — for shooting at neighbor’s apartment

Two Louisville police officers were shot Wednesday night amid protests that erupted after only one cop involved in Breonna Taylor’s death was indicted — his charges relating to the “endangerment” of her white neighbors.

The two officers were taken to the hospital, said Police Chief Robert Schroeder, and a suspect was in custody.

Schroder said the officers' injuries appeared to be non-life-threatening. One was “alert and stable,” the chief said; the other was in surgery. The gunfire was reported about 8:30 p.m.

The protests came after a grand jury charged former Louisville Metro Police officer Brett Hankison with three counts of felony wanton endangerment for blindly firing bullets into Taylor’s apartment that entered an adjacent unit occupied by a man, a pregnant woman and a child.

Taylor, meanwhile, was struck six times by .40 caliber bullets fired by Det. Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. John Mattingly as the officers served a no-knock warrant on her apartment in the “wee hours” of March 13 as part of a narcotics investigation, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said at a press conference.

This undated file photo provided by the Louisville Metro Police Department shows former officer Brett Hankison.

Taylor, 26, was a Black EMT, emergency room technician and aspiring nurse who had already gone to bed that night when the officers used a battering ram to burst through her door. The terrifying intrusion caused her licensed gun-owner boyfriend Kenneth Walker to fire a warning shot, lawyers for Taylor’s family have said.

Giving new details of law enforcement’s six-month investigation, Cameron said Wednesday that Taylor was struck six times — not the five listed in her death certificate. He also claimed the officers "both knocked and announced” themselves, a detail Taylor’s family and other witnesses dispute.

Mattingly was “the first and only officer to enter the residence,” Cameron said. He allegedly saw the couple standing together at the “end of the hall,” with Walker “holding a gun, arms extended in a shooting stance,” Cameron said.

Walker fired first, his 9-millimeter round striking Mattingly in the thigh.

“Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker said in his clearly confused 911 call.

Mattingly fired six shots, Cameron said, while Cosgrove fired his weapon 16 times “almost simultaneously” from the doorway.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron addresses the media following the return of a grand jury investigation into the death of Breonna Taylor, in Frankfort, Ky., on Wednesday. (Timothy D. Easley/)

The prosecutor said his investigation determined only one of the shots that hit Taylor was fatal. He said it was fired by Cosgrove and likely ended her life within a couple minutes.

Cameron said there’s no “conclusive evidence” any of Hankison’s bullets struck Taylor.

“Our investigation found that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their use of force after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker,” Cameron said.

Hankison was released Wednesday after posting $15,000 bail.

“It’s heartbreaking, and it’s outrageous,” civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represents Taylor’s family, told the Daily News. “It’s quite clear under the self-defense laws in Kentucky that it’s never justifiable to shoot or kill an innocent bystander who doesn’t have a weapon and is not threatening you in any manner.”

He said Walker, meanwhile, had a right to defend his home.

“I believe Kenneth Walker was absolutely within his right to defend his castle, have his Second Amendment rights because they always believed that these were intruders. You heard from the present tense on the 911 call. You could tell what his mentality is.”

Crump said the family’s legal team identified 12 neighbors who said they never heard the police announce themselves.

“The one person who said he heard the police changed his story,” Crump told The News. “This is who Daniel Cameron is trying to use to exonerate these officers for killing Breonna Taylor.”

If convicted as charged, Hankison faces a maximum of five years in prison for each wanton endangerment count.

President Trump addressed the ruling, saying, “I thought it was really brilliant, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, he’s doing a fantastic job, I think he’s a star.” Yet he offered no sympathy or support for Taylor’s family. The president said he’d been in touch with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, praising him for deploying the National Guard.

Crump called it “ironic” that the indictment involved the bullets that entered the apartment of the white neighbors while ignoring shots fired into Taylor’s body and a Black neighbor’s apartment upstairs.

“There seems to be two justice systems in America, one for Black America and one for white America,” Crump told The News. “Breonna Taylor is the latest exhibit.”

Taylor has become an internationally recognized face of Black Lives Matter protests, her name ringing out alongside George Floyd’s and many others and her image emblazoned on countless posters, buildings and T-shirts.

State and local officials had been girding for Wednesday’s announcement for days, with National Guard troops brought in to help shut down streets and enforce a curfew in the city that’s been the site of nightly demonstrations for months.

Officers were already arresting protesters hours before darkness fell.

In New York, protests took place in Manhattan and at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“She was murdered,” protester Katie Hellar, 37, a copy writer from Manhattan, said. “They should be charged with murder.”

NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Willliams lamented the Louisville indictment as well.

“We learned again today that damage of property seems to be more important than a Black woman sleeping in her bed,” Williams told The News.

“I’m not okay. Folks are not okay, I know black women are not okay,” he said. “Nothing has changed,” since the Floyd killing, Williams said. “That’s the problem. I’m a little exasperated right now trying to figure this out, cause I don’t know.”

Outrage also spread on social media.

“Justice has NOT been served,” tweeted Linda Sarsour, of the activist group Until Freedom.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose kneeling during the national anthem turned him into a lightning rod of controversy, tweeted, “The white supremacist institution of policing that stole Breonna Taylor’s life from us must be abolished for the safety and well being of our people.”

A woman reacts to news in the Breonna Taylor shooting, Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Louisville, Ky. (Darron Cummings / AP/)

More than three months after Taylor’s killing, Hankison was finally fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department, which said he “wantonly and blindly" fired 10 rounds with a shocking disregard for life.

He has appealed his firing. Mattingly and Cosgrove, meanwhile, were not disciplined beyond their administrative reassignment.

Last week, Taylor’s family settled a civil wrongful-death lawsuit with Louisville officials for $12 million, the largest amount the city has ever paid over an officer shooting someone.

In his comments Wednesday, Cameron called Taylor’s death a “tragedy” but urged people to remain peaceful and focus on the facts in the case.

A woman reacts to news in the Breonna Taylor shooting, Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Louisville, Ky. (Darron Cummings/)

“I understand that Breonna Taylor’s death is part of a national story, but the facts and evidence in this case are different than others," he said. “If we simply act on emotion or outrage, there is no justice.”

He said "mob justice is not justice. Justice sought by violence is not justice. It just becomes revenge.”

“There will be celebrities, influencers and activists, who having never lived in Kentucky will try to tell us how to feel, suggesting they understand the facts of this case … better than we do. But they don’t,” he said.

Cameron, who’s Black, refused to detail the racial makeup of the investigating team or the grand jury, saying it would be “inappropriate” to share such information given the scrutiny the case has drawn.

His office took over the criminal investigation into Taylor’s death in May, after local prosecutor Tom Wine recused himself from the case, citing a conflict of interest. The FBI is investigating Taylor’s killing separately, though the agency shared evidence with Cameron’s office, including a crucial ballistics report.

Cameron said the scope of his investigation did not include the controversial obtainment of the warrant. The FBI is considering that aspect of the case, he said.

With Joe Wilkinson, Nelson Oliveira, Kerry Burke and Chris Sommerfeldt