Taylor, Breonna (1993-2020)

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    Trump Administration Pulls Back From Local Police Oversight Across U.S.

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    The Justice Department said that it would abandon efforts to overhaul local policing in Minneapolis and other cities with histories of civil rights violations.The Trump administration moved on Wednesday to scrap proposed agreements for federal oversight of police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky., as part of a broader abandonment of efforts by previous administrations to overhaul local law enforcement across the United States.Justice Department officials said they planned to drop cases filed after incidents of police violence against Black people in Minneapolis and Louisville, and to close investigations into departments in Memphis; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Trenton, N.J.; and Mount Vernon, N.Y., as well as a case against the Louisiana State Police.In those cities and states, Justice Department officials said, they were retracting Biden-era findings that police departments had violated the constitutional rights of residents and were declaring those findings to be misguided.The announcement came four days before the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died at the hands of the Minneapolis police. That act of violence, caught on video, inspired national outrage and worldwide protests against police violence targeting Black Americans.It also resulted in a withering federal report that found that the Minneapolis Police Department had routinely discriminated against Black and Native American people and had used deadly force without justification. After nearly two years of negotiations, the Justice Department and the city submitted an agreement to the court in January calling for federal oversight of the Police Department’s efforts to address the issues.That arrangement, known as a consent decree, was similar to court-approved agreements between the federal government and at least 13 other cities whose police forces have been accused of widespread civil rights abuses, including Los Angeles, Newark and Ferguson, Mo.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Federal Jury Finds Ex-Officer Brett Hankison Guilty of Violating Breonna Taylor’s Rights

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      The former detective fired 10 shots through Ms. Taylor’s apartment in a raid that set off a wave of protests across the country.The former police detective who fired 10 shots through Breonna Taylor’s apartment in a fatal raid in Louisville, Ky., in 2020 was found guilty on Friday of violating her rights by using excessive force.But the jury cleared the former officer, Brett Hankison, of violating the rights of Ms. Taylor’s neighbors.Mr. Hankison, who is white, was the only officer to be charged for his actions during the raid, though none of the shots he fired hit Ms. Taylor. Two other officers, also white, fired the shots that killed Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who worked as an emergency room technician.The shooting was among several police killings that set off a wave of protests across the country in 2020.It was not the first time that Mr. Hankison faced a jury in the case. Last year, a judge declared a mistrial after jurors failed to come to a unanimous verdict on federal civil rights charges.This is a developing story. Check back for updates. More

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      Sheriff’s Deputies Shoot Woman Inside Friend’s Home in Houston, Authorities Say

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      Body camera footage released on Saturday showed the two Harris County deputies repeatedly firing through the apartment’s window after a report of a break-in.A Houston woman was shot in her friend’s apartment this month by sheriff’s deputies who responded to a report of a break-in and fired repeatedly into the home, according to a statement and body camera footage released by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.Early on Feb. 3, the woman, Eboni Pouncy, and her friend smashed a window to get inside after forgetting the house key, according to a statement released last week by the civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is representing Ms. Pouncy.The women were startled when, after 2 a.m., the deputies began pounding on the door, according Mr. Crump. Fearing an intruder, Ms. Pouncy picked up her legally registered firearm and, shortly after, was struck by five bullets, he said.Emergency medical workers took Ms. Pouncy to a hospital for treatment, the sheriff’s office said. While the nature of her injuries was unclear, Mr. Crump said in his statement that she was recovering.According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the two deputies responded to a report of an intruder at an apartment on the city’s east side at around 2:10 a.m. but found no one inside. Shortly afterward, a resident of a neighboring apartment told the deputies that someone had broken into another second-floor apartment, the sheriff’s office said. When deputies went to investigate the break-in, they found the front window screen removed, broken glass and the blinds raised near the front door, the sheriff’s office said.The footage, retrieved from deputies’ body-worn cameras and released on Saturday, shows the two deputies, who appear to be women, climbing the apartment staircase, knocking on the front door and then retreating a few feet away. One of the deputies says she sees someone coming and shouts, and then both deputies begin firing repeatedly through the glass windows. Both reload their guns and continue to fire several times.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More