(NOTE: Watch the press conference live in the player above beginning at 2:30 p.m. CST)
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is set to join Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in a press conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the decision by a Kentucky grand jury in the Breonna Taylor case.
The grand jury on Wednesday indicted a single police officer for shooting into neighboring apartments but did not move forward with charges against any officers for their role in Taylor’s death. Officer Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment in connection to the police raid on the night of March 13.
Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was shot multiple times by officers who entered her home using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. The warrant used to search her home was connected to a suspect who did not live there, and no drugs were found inside. The use of no-knock warrants has since been banned by Louisville’s Metro Council.
Protesters have consistently pressured State Attorney General Daniel Cameron to act, and celebrities and pro athletes had joined them in calling on the attorney general to charge the police who shot Taylor. At one point, demonstrators converged on his house and were charged with felonies for trying to intimidate the prosecutor.
Before charges were brought, Hankison was fired from the city’s police department on June 23. A termination letter sent to him by interim Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder said the white officer had violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Taylor’s apartment in March.
Hankison, Sgt. Johnathan Mattingly, Officer Myles Cosgrove and the detective who sought the warrant, Joshua Jaynes, were placed on administrative reassignment after the shooting.
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Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, opened fire when police burst in, hitting Mattingly. Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but prosecutors later dropped the charge.
Pritzker on Tuesday put the Illinois National Guard in “a state of readiness” ahead of the grand jury's announcement.
