Charges against Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, permanently dismissed
The charges filed against Kenneth Walker related to last year's fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor were permanently dismissed on Monday.
Taylor, an unarmed Black woman, was killed last March in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment during a police raid. Walker said he believed the police officers were intruders, and fired his gun; when officers fired back, Taylor was shot several times. A bullet from Walker's weapon hit one of the officers in the leg, wounding him, and Walker was charged with assault and attempted murder of a police officer.
In May, the charges were dropped against Walker without prejudice, meaning if new details about the shooting surfaced, they could be refiled. On Monday, Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Olu Stevens dismissed the charges with prejudice, making it permanent.
Last fall, Walker filed a lawsuit asking the court declare him immune from criminal prosecution, due to Kentucky's stand your ground law, WLKY reports. "I was raised by a good family," Walker said. "I am a legal gun owner and I would never knowingly shoot a police officer."
One of the Louisville Metro police officers involved in the shooting, Brett Hankison, was indicted by a grand jury on wanton endangerment charges, after it was found he shot several rounds into a neighboring apartment. Two others have been fired from the department.
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