Several hundred people turned out to protest Wednesday in downtown L.A. in response to a Kentucky grand jury's decision not to hold any police officers criminally liable for the killing of Breonna Taylor.
The grand jury announced charges against only one of the three officers involved in Taylor's killing. Brett Hankison, who was terminated in June, was charged with "wanton endangerment" for firing into neighboring apartments. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed in her home in Louisville during a botched narcotics raid in March.
At the weekly Black Lives Matter protest outside L.A. District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s office on Wednesday, a crowd of about 400 came out to denounce the grand jury’s decision. Amid chants of "Breonna Taylor," activists compared her killing to that of Dijon Kizzee, Andres Guardado, Wakiesha Wilson and others in L.A. They also unfurled a scroll of names of people killed by police in L.A. and marched through downtown to Olvera Street.
In Louisville, authorities said two officers were shot and wounded Wednesday night during the demonstrations following the grand jury decision. Interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said a suspect was in custody but didn’t offer details about whether that person was participating in the demonstrations.
With guest host Kyle Stokes
With files from LAist, NPR and AP
Guest:
, KPCC’s criminal justice and public safety correspondent, who was out in Downtown yesterday covering the protest