Breonna Taylor’s white neighbors — the family in which former LMPD Detective Brett Hankison was charged with three felonious counts of wanton endangerment for shooting into their homes and hitting walls during Taylor’s careless murder — are also in a settlement process after filing a lawsuit in May against the department for “blindly” firing into their apartment.
According to the local Louisville, KY new outlet WDRB, Taylor’s former neighbors Chelsey Napper and Cody Etherton are working with Derby City officials for a payout for what they believe “total disregard for the value of human life”. When the three officers were shooting into Taylor’s home on March 13, 2020, they wilding fired into Napper’s home.
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They have acquired an attorney, Brandon Lawrence who said regarding their settlement negotiations in light of Breonna Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer receiving a $12 million settlement the following, “Honestly, no amount of money can fully compensate for what they’ve been through, but we do hope to achieve a resolution.”
It is said that Hankison blasted his firearm into Napper’s Springfield Drive apartment. Napper, who was pregnant this Spring during the time of the incident, had a child in the home with her and her boyfriend Etherton. In dispute of what the grand jury assessed in their verdict, within their lawsuit both Napper and Etherton assert that the three officers “failed to use any sound reasonable judgment whatsoever” during the raid. So much so, the woman called the authorities because something illegal was happening.
“Something’s going on next door, and there is bullet holes all the way through the wall, through our glass,” Napper told a 911 dispatcher that night. “My boyfriend tried to open the door, and they’re out there – the cops are out there yelling to get back in the house.
“… I understand there’s something going on, but I have a 5-year-old in here so something needs to be explained to me,” she cried out.
While Hankison is on the hot seat for shooting from the outside of the unit without regard for the complex, he and the other two officers Sgt. Jon Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove have not been reprimanded for their gunplay that resulted in Breonna Taylor’s death.
In fact, the FBI’s investigation found that indeed Cosgrove’s bullets took the young woman’s life. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, however who said that his office disagrees and believes that the results of the ballistic report made it impossible to say who killed her.
Cameron also noted that because Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker shot at them first (who contends that he believed that the officers were intruders), the LMPD members were “justified” in the unfortunate death.
Napper and Etherton’s lawyer also shared that his clients were “extremely pleased” about the former detectives’ indictment because it shows that he is being held accountable for his irresponsible action.”
At the same time, while enjoying the justice afforded them by the grand jury, “emphasize and sympathize with Tamika Palmer and the family of Breonna Taylor and of course “join with folks in the pursuit of justice for Breonna Taylor.”
