Officer involved in Breonna Taylor shooting fired by Louisville police

One of the Louisville police officers who was involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor in March has been fired, Mayor Greg Fischer (D) announced Friday.

Fischer said that Louisville Metro Police Chief Rob Schroeder was “initiating termination procedures against Louisville Metro Police Officer Brett Hankison.”

“Unfortunately, due to a provision in state law that I very much would like to see changed, both the Chief and I are precluded from talking about what brought us to this moment, or even the timing of this decision,” the Fischer said at a Friday news conference.

Taylor was killed in her Louisville apartment on March 13 after Hankison and two other plainclothes police officers forcefully entered with a no-knock warrant while Taylor was asleep.

Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, opened fire on the officers, believing that they were intruders. Hankison and the others fired back, hitting Taylor eight times, killing her.

In a letter to Hankison explaining the termination, Schroeder accused the now-terminated officer of “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment.

“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” Schroeder wrote, according to the Courier Journal. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.”

Schroder added: “The result of your action seriously impedes the Department’s goal of providing the citizens of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible. I cannot tolerate this type of conduct by any member of the Louisville Metro Police Department. Your conduct demands your termination.”

The two other officers who fired their weapons that night — Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove — have been placed on administrative reassignment.