Two anonymous members of the grand jury involved in the Breonna Taylor case have once again called out Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron over his handling of the proceedings.
They feel betrayed by the prominent government official.
The jurors sat down with Gayle King, co-host of “CBS This Morning” for an exclusive interview where they reiterated they were never given the option to consider indicting officers on charges directly linked to Taylor’s death.
Former officer Brett Hankison was the only officer charged in connection with the raid in which Taylor was shot and killed in her own home on March 13. He is facing three counts of wanton endangerment and has been fired from the department. No officers have been charged directly with her death.
According to the jurors, under Cameron’s instruction, no other charges were possible.
“It was a betrayal,” Juror No. 2 said. “They didn’t give us the charges up front… when they gave us all of that testimony, over 20-something hours, and then to say that these are the only charges that they’re coming up with, it’s like, ‘Well, what did we just sit through?'”
Juror No. 1 says that while prosecutors told them “there were other possible charges,” they also informed jurors that those charges were not ones they could “make stick.”
“They never gave us the opportunity to deliberate on anything but the charges for Hankison. That was it,” Juror No. 2 said. “There were several more charges that could have gone forward on all of those officers or at least the 3 shooters.”
Cameron has been accused of whitewashing the investigation into Taylor’s death. Juror No. 2 believes the police were busy covering up their blunders — a sentiment echoed by Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, after the grand jury’s decision was announced.
“From the evidence that I heard, this thing started out downhill to begin with… You don’t need seven cops to go up to somebody’s door and knock on it and say, ‘You know, we’re here to do an investigation,’ at 1:00 in the morning,” Juror No. 2 said. “It was one mistake right after the other one… They covered it up. That’s what the evidence that I saw. And I felt like there should have been lots more charges on them.”
Both grand jurors believed there was enough evidence to indict the officers involved in the shooting on homicide charges.
“All of the evidence there, as we were listening to it we were sure this was leading up to something like that,” grand juror No. 1 said.
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Originally posted 2020-10-28 14:19:04.
