Nearly 90 protesters who were arrested earlier this week while calling for justice for Breonna Taylor have had felony charges against them dismissed, the Louisville Courier Journal reported on Friday.
The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) had arrested 87 protesters on Tuesday outside the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R), where they were calling for charges against the police officers who fatally shot Taylor. They were charged with intimidating a participant in the legal process, a felony that could result in up to five years in prison, as well as two misdemeanors.
“While we do believe the LMPD had probable cause for the charge, in the interest of justice and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas, we will dismiss that charge for each protester arrested this past Tuesday,” Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell announced in a statement on Friday.
More than 100 demonstrators, including NFL wide receiver Kenny Stills and Minneapolis NAACP President Leslie Redmond, walked to Cameron’s home in the protest organized by the social justice group Until Freedom.
An LMPD spokesperson told The Hill earlier this week that officers followed the group as it marched to Cameron’s home, where they gathered on his lawn, prompting him to request they leave. The protesters were arrested after they refused.
Taylor was killed on March 13 after three white officers carried out a “no-knock” warrant, using a battering ram on her apartment door. The warrant was for a man who did not live in the building, however, and who was already in custody at the time.
Taylor was shot and killed when officers returned fire on her boyfriend, who thought the home was being broken into. They had both been asleep when police arrived.
No charges have been filed in the case, though Black Lives Matter protesters have demonstrated for weeks in the city and called for action. The city has since passed Breonna’s Law, which ends no-knock warrants and requires body cameras be used by all officers. One of the officers involved has been terminated, and the other two have been reassigned.
The charges against protesters had drawn swift backlash this week as many noted how fast demonstrators were charged in comparison to the officers involved in Taylor’s death.