According to ABC affiliate WHAS11, charges originally filed against Kenneth Walker, stemming from an incident with the Louisville Police Department in March, have been dropped. Walker is the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor, the young EMT worker who was killed in her apartment by police while she was reportedly sleeping.
According to court documents in the case of the Commonwealth of Kentucky v Kenneth Walker III, the judge dismissed without prejudice the charges of first-degree assault and attempted murder of a police officer. Walker has always maintained that he was shooting at what he thought was an intruder trying to break in. He was not hurt in the standoff that left Breonna Taylor dead.
The order signed by Jefferson Circuit Court comes after Commonwealth Attorney Tom Wine asked a judge to dismiss the case against Walker. “This matter having come before the Court on the Commonwealth’s motion to dismiss the indictment herein without prejudice pursuant to RCr 9.64, the parties having been heard, and the Court being otherwise sufficiently advised, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the motion is GRANTED and the indictment against Defendant is DISMISSED WITHOUT PREJUDICE,” the order read. Walker was also released from home incarceration.
In the weeks since Taylor’s death made national headlines, the public has demanded accountability for the three officers involved in her death. In addition to growing calls for the city of Louisville to ban no-knock warrants, community organizers are demanding that the men, who remain on the force, be fired immediately. The office of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Jay Cameron is still investigating the case.
Cameron’s office issued a statement obtained by USA Today, saying, “The Office of the Attorney General has been asked to serve as special prosecutor in the matter involving the death of Breonna Taylor. At the conclusion of the investigation, the office will review the evidence and take appropriate action.”