The long-awaited charges against the former officer, Brett Hankison, were immediately criticized by demonstrators who had demanded more serious counts and the arrests of the three officers involved in the March shooting.
A former Louisville police officer has been indicted by a grand jury on three counts of Wanton endangerment in the first degree in connection with the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. The other two officers -- Sgt. John Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove -- was not charged following months of demonstrations.
The findings of the grand jury probe into the fatal police shooting announced by Kentucy's Attorney General Daniel Cameron Wednesday afternoon. He called Taylor's death "a gut-wrenching emotional case" where"the pain is understandable."
Demonstrators at a makeshift memorial to Taylor in downtown Louisville called for Cameron to step down after the charges were announced in court and the former's detective's bond was set at $15,000.
The charges come more than six months after Taylor, a 26-year-old Black EMT and aspiring nurse, was shot to death by LOUISVILLE police officers in her room. The officers broke down the door to her apartment while executing a late-night, "no-knock" warrant in a narcotics investigation on March 13.
The grand jury was to present its report to Jefferson County Circuit Judge Annie O'Connell at 1:15 p.m., according to a statement from the Administrative Ofice of the courts.
Cameron's news conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Depending on the grand jury's findings, Cameron's options range from declining to prosecute to charging one or more officers.
Protesters have criticized the length of the investigation and demanded the arrests of the all officers involved.
Anticipating new protests, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and Louisville Interim police Chief Robert Schroeder Wednesday afternoon announced a 72- hour countywide curfew starting 9 p.m. Government buildings will be closed.
The Kentucky National Gaurd has been activated, Schroeder said. "I urge everyone to commit once again to a peaceful, Lawful response like we've seen here for the majority of the past several months," Fisher said.
The city and the police department had already declared states of emergency and set up barricades restricting vehicle access to downtown areas. Stores and restaurants have boarded up their windows, and some federal buildings closed for the week.
Protesters started gathering Wednesday morning, hours before the expected announcement. Taylor's death set off outrage across the country, chants of "say her name," calls to arrest the officers and a renewed focus on the Black women killed by the police. Her story gained wider attention during nationwide demonstrations that followed the late May killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
Cameron, the first Black person to hold the post and a Republican rising star, was made a special prosecutor in the case in May, and the FBI opened an investigation as well.
A portrait of Taylor was featured on the cover of the September issue of Oprah Winfrey's "O, The Magazine," the first time in the magazine's history that anyone but Winfrey has been on the cover. The magazine put up 26 billboards - one for each year of her life -around Louisville calling for the officers involved in her killing to be arrested and charged.
NBA superstar LeBron James has also sought to keep the case in the spotlight, Along with his Los Angeles Lakers teammates -donned the MAGA hats worn by Trump supporters with the message: "Make America Great Again Arrest The Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor.
