More than six months after Taylor was shot to death after Louisville police officers broke down the door to her apartment while executing a warrant, a grand jury decided to indict only one of the three officers involved on first-degree wanton endangerment charges. The charge applies to the risk put on Taylor's neighbors but does not aim to hold the officer responsible for her death.
From Louisville to Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York, masses of people congregated to protest the decision. Police in Portland declared protests outside the justice center there a riot. And in Seattle, 13 people were arrested after a night of fires and protesters throwing glass bottles and fireworks at police, authorities said.
Taylor's case has been a rallying point for protesters nationwide as they've demonstrated against racial injustice and police brutality. For months, chants of "Say her name" echoed across the country, along with calls to honor other Black people killed or hurt in police custody, including George Floyd.
"We somehow got our hopes up in this case. We wanted to believe the system would change," Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, told CNN. Instead, Wednesday's announcement by Attorney General Daniel Cameron, she said, was "devastating."
"We will go to our graves proclaiming that Breonna Taylor did not get justice from the Kentucky attorney general's office," Taylor family lawyer Ben Crump told CNN on Wednesday.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency room technician and aspiring nurse, was described by relatives as a hard-working, goal-oriented young woman who put an emphasis on family. Crump called demonstrations over her death "righteous anger."
Former Det. Brett Hankison intends to plead not guilty when he is arraigned, his attorney, Stew Matthews, told CNN. Evidence in the case does not support the charges against his client, he added.
Hankison was booked Wednesday in the Shelby County Jail, posted a $15,000 bond and was released, Matthews said.
2 officers shot in Louisville protests
Anticipating unrest, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer signed an executive order setting a countywide 72-hour curfew starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Shortly before it began, gunfire rang out near one of the marches in the city, according to video from the scene and reports.
Two responding officers were shot and suffered non-life-threatening wounds, Interim Police Chief Robert Schroeder told reporters.
Police were starting to move forward as three apparent flash bangs were fired into the air toward protesters, a video livestreamed by the Louisville Metro Police Department shows. Nine shots are heard in videos taken by police and Regg Inkagnedo, who also livestreamed the moment.
"Shots fired, shots fired," a voice is heard saying on the police livestream. "Officers down ... take cover."
Shots are also heard on a third video obtained by CNN. In that footage, officers quickly approach an ambulance and apparently load an injured person into it, the video by CNN affiliate Spectrum News 1 Kentucky reporter Khyati Patel shows.
One of the officers who was shot was released from the hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to the hip, Schroeder said in a Thursday news conference. The other underwent surgery after he was shot in the abdomen, and both are expected to recover.
Larynzo Johnson, 26, was arrested in connection with the shooting, according to the Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections. He faces two counts of first-degree assault of an officer and 14 counts of wanton endangerment of a police officer.
CNN couldn't immediately determine Thursday morning whether Johnson had attorneys who would speak on his behalf. He's expected to be arraigned Friday morning.
Nearly 130 people were arrested in the unrest Wednesday night, according to Schroeder.
The FBI Louisville office is asking for the public to submit any videos related to the shooting of the officers, according to a post on the FBI's website.
The deadly raid on Breonna Taylor's home
The incident that ended Taylor's life began with a narcotics investigation on March 13.
Hankison, Sgt. John Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove were executing a search warrant on Taylor's home, though her ex-boyfriend was the focus of the probe. Her ex-boyfriend was later arrested on drug charges and told a Kentucky newspaper that she had nothing to do with the probe into an alleged drug trade that spurred the warrant.
Taylor was sleeping next to her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, in the early hours of March 13, when they heard a noise. They both got up and walked to the door.
"She's yelling at the top of her lungs -- and I am too at this point -- 'Who is it?'" recalled Walker. "No answer. No response. No anything."
Police forced entry into the home, and Walker said he couldn't see but he fired one shot. After entering, Mattingly was shot in the leg, Cameron, the attorney general, said Wednesday.
The chaotic police operation that night was exacerbated by Hankison, who was accused by his own department of "blindly" firing 10 bullets into Taylor's apartment from an outdoor patio. Hankison was fired in June, the Louisville police chief said, but he is appealing his termination. His attorney, David Leightty, has declined to comment.
Cameron argued the officers were "justified in their use of force" because Taylor's boyfriend fired first.
Calls mount for evidence to be released
An attorney for Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, said the grand jury's decision "does not make legal sense" and questioned Cameron's statement that the officers' actions were justified.
"One shot that Kenny Walker fired does not justify 32 shots being fired blindly into Breonna's apartment without target acquisition," lawyer Lonita Baker told CNN on Thursday morning.
Walker's attorney, Steve Romines, also disputed Cameron's assertion, telling CNN on Thursday morning, "That's what a jury is for."
"We have to present our evidence to a jury and let a jury decide if they were acting in self-defense or not," he said.
Some critical of the decision have called on Cameron to release evidence in the case.
"What did (Cameron's office) present to the grand jury? That is the question everybody is asking," said Crump, adding that the family demands Cameron release the transcript of the grand jury proceedings.
Romines also called for the release of the grand jury file, saying it would "show the information they presented to the grand jury was simply designed not to charge these officers."
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear asked Cameron to post the evidence online so people can read it and "ask the tough questions" of elected officials, the governor told CNN.
"We ought to be able to see the evidence and see the facts that led to that conclusion," Beshear, a Democrat, said. "I trust the people of Kentucky with the truth. I trust them to be able to look at the facts, but they're not able to do that right now."
"Throughout the last six months, there hasn't been really any explanation of the process, the evidence you'd have to secure, what it even takes to make certain charges," he added. "And then the evidence itself, to date, has not been shared. Certainly, I think that now is the time."
Charges aren't related to her death
Hankison was charged with endangering not Taylor's life but those of the people in the next apartment, Crump said.
The decision was an insult to Taylor's family and an outrage to the community, he said.
"The fact that you're going to charge for bullets going into an apartment but not for bullets going into Breonna Taylor's body is outrageous," Crump told CNN on Wednesday. "There are two justice systems in America: one for Black America, one for White America."
First-degree wanton endangerment is a Class D felony, the lowest of four classes of felonies. The maximum sentence is five years; the minimum is one year.
The NAACP in a statement said the justice system "failed" Taylor and the charges against one officer do "not go far enough."
"The decision before my office is not to decide if the loss of Breonna Taylor's life was a tragedy," said Cameron, the first Black person to serve as the state's attorney general and a rising Republican star. "The answer to that question is unequivocally yes."
Cameron called Taylor's death "a gut-wrenching, emotional case." He defended the length of the investigation, saying the time reflected "how important it was to get this right."
"I certainly understand the pain that has been brought about by the tragic loss of Ms. Taylor. I understand that as an attorney general who is responsible for all 120 counties, in terms of being the chief legal officer -- the chief law enforcement officer, I understand that. I understand that as a Black man how painful this is, which is why it was so incredibly important to make sure that we did everything we possibly could to uncover every fact."
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