WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department is charging four current and former Louisville police officers in connection to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, during the execution of a search warrant in 2020.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that the charges for three of the officers are in relation to falsifying an arrest warrant to search her home when they knew they didn’t have the evidence to support it. A fourth officer is being charged in connection with use of excessive force.
Taylor was fatally shot in her apartment on March 13, 2020, when white plainclothes police officers forcibly entered it as part of a “no-knock” warrant. Her killing became part of a larger movement protesting racial bias in police departments that led to nationwide demonstrations in the summer of 2020 and a greater focus on systemic racism in the U.S.
