‘Disappointed’: SC’s Tim Scott opines on grand jury decision in Breonna Taylor case
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott said in a statement Thursday that he was “angry, sad and frustrated” over the situation in Louisville, where protests erupted Wednesday and two police officers were shot after a grand jury declined to indict the officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor during a botched raid on her apartment earlier this year.
“Breonna Taylor’s life must mean more than this,” said Scott, the Senate’s lone Black Republican. “After months of heartache, I cannot imagine what her family is feeling today, but my prayers are with them.”
Demonstrators in Louisville took to the streets Wednesday night after neither of the officers whose bullets struck Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency room technician shot six times inside her apartment in March by officers executing a search warrant, were charged in her death.
The only officer involved in the raid who was indicted was a former detective who fired 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment through a sliding glass door and window that were covered with blinds. He faces three counts of wanton endangerment for shots that were not related to Taylor’s death.
The charges Brett Hankinson faces stem from the shots he fired into Taylor’s apartment that then entered a neighboring unit and allegedly threatened the lives of a pregnant woman, her husband and their five-year-old child who were sleeping inside, prosecutors said.
Scott said in his statement that he was disappointed the only charge brought in connection with the raid was “completely unrelated” to Taylor’s death, especially because inconsistencies in the initial police reports raised questions that they were falsified.
“The JUSTICE Act,” a police reform bill Scott introduced earlier this year in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis Police custody, “would have given prosecutors additional tools useful in this case, such as increasing penalties for falsifying a police report and new penalties for not using body cameras,” he said.
Senate Democrats blocked Scott’s bill in June, shortly after its introduction, arguing that its proposed reforms did not go far enough.
Scott said in his statement Thursday that he would continue to push for police reforms, but that some changes, particularly bans on no-knock warrants, would need to be enacted at the state and local levels.
He also said he would be pray for the two Louisville officers shot Wednesday night amid the fallout from the grand jury decision and denounced violent protests.
Louisville police announced at a news conference after the shooting that neither of the officers’ injuries were life-threatening and said a suspect had been taken into custody.
“Breonna Taylor’s life, and George Floyd’s and Ahmaud Arbery’s and Tamir Rice’s and Walter Scott’s and so many others, must be seen as a beacon for change, not a war cry for bloodshed,” Scott said. “Say their name and demand change...not destruction. Justice does not equal revenge.”
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 11:38 AM.