The Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking to permanently dismiss the cases against two former Louisville police officers connected to the night Breonna Taylor was killed six years ago, according to court documents filed Friday.
Former Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany were accused of falsifying a warrant that led to the botched police raid on her apartment the night she died. Federal prosecutors said in the motion that their charges should be “dismissed in the interest of justice.”
Lawyers for Jaynes, Travis Lock, told The Epoch Times in an email that he and Jaynes were “extremely happy” to learn of the DOJ motion.
Michael Denbow, lawyer for Meany, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times that “Kyle [Meany] is incredibly grateful for today’s filing.”
“He is looking forward to putting this matter behind him and moving forward with his life,” Denbow said.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, criticized the motion by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to dismiss Jaynes’s and Meany’s cases.
“I am compelled to express my extreme disappointment in [President Donald] Trump and the Department of Justice,” Palmer said in a post on Facebook.
Taylor, 26 years old at the time of her death in March 2020, was shot by police while three officers served a no-knock warrant as part of a drug investigation into her boyfriend, suspect Kenneth Walker.
While carrying out the raid, Walker fired a shot that hit an officer in the leg. He later said he acted under the belief that intruders were breaking in.
Police returned fire, and several bullets struck and killed Taylor. Walker was not hit. Taylor’s death came a couple of months before the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests and violent, damaging riots.
At his sentencing in July 2025, Hankison apologized to Taylor’s friends and family, adding that he would have acted differently if he knew about the issues surrounding the no-knock warrant.
“I never would have fired my gun,” he said in the courtroom.
Prosecutors did not charge the other two officers, deeming their return fire justified.
It remains unclear when a judge could rule on the DOJ’s motion to dismiss with prejudice the charges against Jaynes and Meany.
