Breonna Taylor’s Mom: ‘I Have No Faith in the Legal System’

Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, said Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron was not up to the job of achieving justice for her daughter.

“I never had faith in Daniel Cameron to begin with,” Palmer said in a statement that was read aloud by her sister and Taylor’s aunt, Bianca Austin, according to NPR. Palmer later added she believes Cameron is too inexperienced and had failed her daughter by shifting responsibility to a grand jury.

“I was reassured Wednesday of why I have no faith in the legal system, in the police, in the law,” Palmer said through her sister. “They are not made to protect us Black and brown people.”

Only one officer involved in the March 13 incident was charged with a crime. Brett Hankison, who was fired from the police force in June, faces three counts of wanton endangerment related to shooting into apartments adjacent to Taylor’s. The Class D felony carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The other two officers, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove, both of whom also opened fire that night were not charged. An FBI analysis determined Cosgrove fired the shots that killed Taylor, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said on Wednesday.

Cameron said in a press conference Wednesday that his office believes the actions of the two officers “were justified in their use of force,” because Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was the first to fire. Walker told the police he fired first because he thought someone had broken into the apartment.

“When I speak on it, I’m considered an angry Black woman,” Palmer said in her statement. “But know this: I am an angry Black woman. I am not angry for the reasons that you would like me to be — but angry because our Black women keep dying at the hands of police officers. And Black men.”

Benjamin Crump, one of the attorneys for Taylor’s family, said the indictment punishes one officer for literally missing Taylor with his bullets while forgiving the others for shooting Taylor.

“If Hankison’s behavior constituted wanton endangerment of the people in the apartments next to hers, then it should also be considered wanton endangerment of Breonna,” Crump said in an interview with NBC’s Today show.

Crump, along with others, including Louisville’s Mayor Greg Fischer, has been calling for Cameron to release the transcripts from the grand jury proceedings.

When Mayor Fischer was asked about the potential release of records related to the investigation, he said the city is working with Cameron and the FBI “to understand what we can release so it doesn’t interfere with any of the ongoing investigations” into Taylor’s death.

“What we want to do is get as much of this information out as soon as we can,” Fischer said. “There does need to be some redaction of names to protect individuals’ identities in some of these cases. So that process has started and we hope to be able to announce further information on that soon.”