Kentucky’s FBI agents say they are working tirelessly to investigate possible civil rights violations by the Louisville police officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician who was killed in her home.
“We have our best agents working on this,” Robert Brown, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Louisville, said. “This is definitely our top priority.”
According to ABC News, Brown also said that he could not comment on the specifics of the case. He said that he knows the public is not happy with how long the investigation is taking, but said “it’s better to be meticulous and do it right, than to rush.”
“These are very complex investigations,” he added.
On March 13, Taylor was shot eight times by plainclothes officers who entered her home under a no-knock narcotics warrant. Her boyfriend Kenneth Walker thought they were being robbed and fired his weapon. The officers returned fire and Taylor was fatally struck.
Since the shooting, protests have erupted across the country as people demand justice for Taylor. None of the three officers were charged or arrested for the crime. Two of the officers involved in the case — Jon Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove — have been placed on administrative reassignment.
Brett Hankison, the third officer involved in the case, was terminated from the department for his role in the shooting. His lawyers have filed an appeal on his behalf requesting a hearing before the Louisville Police Merit Board. In the appeal, lawyer David Leightty accused Mayor Greg Fischer and acting Chief Robert Schroeder of terminating his client before the investigation was complete.
“Any determination of whether to punish Hankison, and if so what the punishment should be, must rest on facts and evidence, not on assumptions,” wrote Leightty. “Brett Hankison’s actions must be judged based on what they really were — and that is not yet fully established.”