NY Times: “Four years ago, thousands of demonstrators would squeeze into Jefferson Square Park in downtown Louisville, Ky., to remember Breonna Taylor. They marched, they chanted, they gathered for vigils. Police officers broke up crowds with flash bang grenades. It was the epicenter for racial justice protests in the city.
On Saturday, less than 24 hours after a jury convicted a former Louisville police officer of excessive force in the botched raid that killed Ms. Taylor, the park was empty. But one woman sitting across the street had not forgotten about her.
“I’m glad the family finally got justice,” said Rocqual Pickett, a lifelong resident of Louisville who was waiting for a bus. “It was a long time coming.”
…The convicted former detective, Brett Hankison, who is white, fired 10 shots through the apartment of Ms. Taylor, a Black 26-year-old emergency room technician, in March 2020. Those shots did not kill Ms. Taylor. Two other officers, Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly, both also white, fired the fatal shots but were never charged. Prosecutors said that they had been justified in their actions.
Mr. Hankison’s use of deadly force “was unlawful and put Ms. Taylor in harm’s way,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement after the verdict was announced on Friday.
Mr. Hankison also went to trial last year facing federal civil rights charges, but a judge declared a mistrial when a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. He was previously acquitted of similar state charges.”