LA civil rights leader Connie Rice speaks out against Breonna Taylor grand jury decision
"It's the wrong decision and Breonna Taylor should be alive," says prominent civil rights attorney Connie Rice.
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Powerful voices are rising in opposition to the decision not to charge the Louisville police officers for Breonna Taylor's death, including prominent civil rights attorney Connie Rice.
Rice, who has led the charge for reforms in police departments in Los Angles and around the country, says the grand jury decision to bring no charges is a travesty.
"It's the wrong decision and Breonna Taylor should be alive," Rice says.
A Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against Louisville police for the killing of Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong, with prosecutors saying Wednesday two officers who fired their weapons at the Black woman were justified in using force to protect themselves.
The grand jury instead charged fired Officer Brett Hankison with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing into Taylor's neighbors' homes during the raid on the night of March 13.
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Rice says the raid shouldn't have happened since Taylor's ex-boyfriend, the suspected drug dealer, was already in a custody and she wasn't a target.
Of the 12 neighbors who heard the incident, only one says they hard police identify themselves before they broke into her home. Taylor's boyfriend opened fire on what he thought were intruders. Police responded with gunfire of their own, killing Breonna Taylor.
"What this says is that it's OK to kill a black woman in her own apartment in the middle of the night when she had absolutely no suspicion, was not going be arrested, have her dead and that's OK. It is not OK," Rice says.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti says the decision is not justice.
"Why did this happen? And why has it happened over and over and over," Garcetti said Wednesday during a briefing.
Rice offered a personal message to those who say they're worn down and tired of the steady bombardment of stories like Breonna Taylor.
"No, I'm not tired. My grandmother told me a long time ago you haven't earned the right to be tired until you've had to sit in the dark with a long gun over your knees waiting for the Klan in Alabama," Rice says. "We don't have any right to be tired. My grandmother also said justice is a relay. You take the baton, you run your leg, you run it like the wind is behind you."
The FBI is still investigating potential violations of federal law in the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
