TSR Updatez: As people in Louisville and across the nation continue to put pressure on officials to bring charges against the three officers who killed 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, the only officer who was actually fired in her death is now fighting his termination.
It’s clear people feel that Brett Hankison got lucky when the only discipline he received was getting fired considering many actually want to see him and the two other officers involved behind bars.
So I would imagine there’s a lot of side-eye now that Hankison’s attorney has filed an appeal letter, stating that the termination of his client was unfairly premature, according to CNN. Hankison was officially fired June 23rd in a letter issued by Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder who Hankison, “I find your conduct a shock to the conscience…I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.”
Attorney David Leightty, who is representing Hankison, wrote an appeal letter to the Louisville Metro Police Department stating that his client shouldn’t be punished until the facts of the case are in. “Brett Hankison should not be punished unless the facts show he committed wrongdoing, and the facts are not yet in,” the letter said.
Hankison violated standard operating procedure when his “actions displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly fired ten (10) rounds” into Breonna’s apartment while she was sleeping, Schroeder wrote in the letter.
Some of the rounds Hankison fired went into an apartment next door, “endangering the three lives in that apartment,” Schroeder wrote.
Leightly also challenged the allegation made by Schroeder that Hankison “blindly” shot his service weapon during the incident.
Hankison “did not lack cognizance of the direction in which he fired, but acted in quick response to gunfire directed at himself and other officers,” Leightty wrote.
An appeal has also been filed for Hankison to get his job back, according to an attorney for the merit board which handles the appeals process.
“By Kentucky law, any police officer who is a part of a merit system police department that has been terminated, suspended or demoted and then files an appeal for that disciplinary action is entitled to an appeal,” the attorney said.
As protests continue, the state attorney general’s office has yet to complete its investigation into the deadly shooting. We’ll keep you posted on any updates.
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