Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, on Wednesday filed an application with the Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council requesting they appoint a “competent and capable prosecutor” willing to handle her daughter’s case. The application criticizes Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron for presenting no charges to the grand jury related to her daughter’s police shooting death, other than wanton endangerment charges against former officer Brett Hankison, on which he was indicted. No charges related to Taylor’s death were offered to the jury. The application further states that “the investigation and presentation were oversimplified and deficient by design” and that grand jury transcripts confirm critical evidence was not obtained or presented. It also asserts Cameron violated his ethical, statutory, and constitutional duties and “made a biased internal decision to not prosecute this case,” and “deliberately engaged in misconduct designed to impede upon the grand jury’s independent investigative and factfinding roles.”
The news comes as two additional, anonymous grand jurors declared in a telephone press conference Wednesday that they believed Breonna Taylor’s death was a crime, but prosecutors told them they didn’t believe they could make any charges stick, beyond the wanton endangerment charges the grand jury was told to consider. One juror said there was an “uproar” when grand jurors realized they could only consider the limited charges with which they were presented. Both grand jurors said they believed enough evidence was presented to them to warrant further charges, and feel that some officers’ actions that night were criminal. Four grand jurors in all have now spoken publicly, all of whom objected to the limitations on the charges they were allowed to consider in Taylor’s death.
Breonna Taylor was shot and killed as she slept in her bed March 13 by Louisville police officers executing a no-knock warrant on her residence. The officers opened fire after Taylor’s boyfriend fired his licensed handgun, believing intruders were at the door.