Breonna Taylor: Former Cop Pleads Guilty to Killing Black EMT

Former police detective Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty Tuesday to falsifying a search warrant that led to the murder of Breonna Taylor in March 2020.

Goodlett pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate Taylor’s civil rights and admitted that he and another officer forged a search warrant and then lied in trying to cover up the attack.

He is one of four former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department detectives charged by the US Justice Department in the raid that left 26-year-old Taylor dead at his home.

Goodlett’s guilty plea is the first conviction resulting from Taylor’s death, according to the New York Times, which first reported his guilty plea Tuesday.

On March 13, 2020, Taylor was sleeping in her apartment with her boyfriend when police raided her apartment. Taylor’s girlfriend, believing the police to be an intruder, fired a single shot.

Three police officers barged in and fired 32 shots, six of which struck and killed Taylor.

Taylor’s death, along with other 2020 killings like those of George Floyd and Almaud Arbor, sparked worldwide outrage and mass protests against police violence against people of color.

Prosecutors said Goodlett and one of his former colleagues, Joshua Janes, met days after the fatal shooting to cover up false evidence presented to justify a house search. He claims to have made up a false story.

Federal prosecutors also charged Janes and another colleague, now Sergeant Kyle Meaney, with civil rights violations and obstruction of justice. Another police officer, former detective Brett Hankison, was charged with civil rights violations for excessive use of force.

In March, Hankison was acquitted of the risk-taking charges. A grand jury previously acquitted two other officers who shot Taylor, but charged Hankison with endangering neighbors in the apartment next door.

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