Kentucky AG: Breonna Taylor files to be released on Friday

The release of secret grand jury proceedings in Breonna Taylor’s killing by police will be delayed until Friday, according to the Kentucky attorney general’s office.

Daniel Cameron’s office filed a motion Wednesday asking a court in Louisville for a week’s delay to allow the names of witnesses and their personal information, including addresses and phone numbers, to be redacted.

Cameron’s office said a judge granted a shorter delay, saying the material should be made public Friday. The audio recordings were originally supposed to be released Wednesday.

Cameron’s office sought the delay “in the interest of protection of witnesses, and in particular private citizens named in the recordings,” according to the filing. The recordings are 20 hours long.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was shot dead in her home in Louisville by police who were executing a warrant in March.

The grand jury decided this month not to charge any of the police officers involved with her death; instead, one officer was charged with shooting into a neighbouring home.

That decision angered many, and protesters took to the streets in Louisville and around the country to demand accountability for her killing, as frustrations spilled over after months of waiting for Cameron’s announcement. Activists and Taylor’s family called for the grand jury file to be released.

Facing questions about the grand jury this week, Cameron acknowledged that he did not recommend homicide charges for the offices involved. Instead, he only recommended one of the officers be indicted, for the wanton endangerment of Taylor’s neighbours.

Cameron, a Republican protege of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the state’s first African American attorney general, said the other two officers who fired their guns were justified because Taylor’s boyfriend had fired at them first.

Cameron said the record will show that his team “presented a thorough and complete case to the grand jury”.

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical worker, was shot six times in her Louisville apartment on March 13 by officers carrying a narcotics warrant.

Taylor and her boyfriend were watching a movie in her bedroom when the police came to her door and eventually knocked it down. The warrant was related to an investigation of a drug suspect who did not live with her, and police found no drugs at her apartment.

Former officer Brett Hankison, who was fired from the force for his actions during the raid, pleaded not guilty to three counts of wanton endangerment on Monday.

Officers Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg by Taylor’s boyfriend, and Myles Cosgrove, who Cameron said appeared to have fired the fatal shot at Taylor, according to ballistics tests, remain on the force.