March 13 marked six years since Tamika Palmer has lived without her daughter, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician killed by police officers in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020.
Two weeks after the anniversary of Breonna Taylor’s death, a federal judge dismissed charges against two ex-police officers involved in drafting the no-knock search warrant that led to her death, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Ms. Palmer criticized the decision in an interview with ABC News.
“They committed a crime, so there’s no getting it behind you. Breonna doesn’t get to come back. She doesn’t get to put it behind her. She was killed because of their lies and negligence, and somebody should be held accountable for that,” she said. “There’s no putting it behind me. She deserved to be here. She deserved to live her life.”
Former Louisville police officer Joshua Jaynes was originally charged with conspiracy, falsification of records in a federal investigation and civil rights violations. Former officer Kyle Meany was originally charged with civil rights violations and making false statements to federal investigators.
With courts chipping away at the charges over time, the felony civil rights charges were reduced to misdemeanors in August 2025. The Justice Department asked a federal court to drop the remaining charges on March 20.
“The Department of Justice’s move to dismiss these remaining charges is deeply painful for Breonna Taylor’s family and it sends a chilling message about the value of Black lives in our country,” civil rights and personal injury attorneys Ben Crump and Lonita Baker, who represent Ms. Taylor’s family, said in a statement.
“The warrant that sent officers to Breonna’s door has always been at the center of this tragedy and it deserves no less than the highest level of accountability.
We cannot accept a reality where a young woman can be killed in her own home, and no one is held responsible under the law. That is not justice. That is injustice compounded,” they added.
Under the warrant that federal prosecutors said contained false information, officers broke down Ms. Taylor’s apartment door. Thinking the officers were breaking in, Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a single shot with his licensed handgun. Officers fired 32 rounds back, several of which struck Ms. Taylor. Her death sparked nationwide protests.
In a statement to ABC News, a DOJ spokesperson described the charges against the officers as “inappropriate, weaponized federal overreach.”
With the recent drop in charges, no one is serving time for Breonna Taylor’s death. Former policeman Brett Hankison is the only officer convicted in connection with her death.
In July 2025, he was sentenced to 33 months in prison on a federal civil rights violation for excessive force, but he was released on bail in December 2025, pending appeal. The excessive rounds he fired through Ms. Taylor’s home did not hit anyone.
Former Louisville police detective Myles Cosgrove, who fired the shot that killed Ms. Taylor, was never criminally charged.
Former officer Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge related to falsifying an affidavit to obtain a search warrant in 2022, but her sentencing has been repeatedly delayed. Her sentencing is now scheduled for July 29, according to Louisville Public Media.
Federal prosecutors argued that the alleged falsified affidavit used to obtain the search warrant brought officers to Breonna Taylor’s door that day.
“We stand with Breonna Taylor’s family as they continue to demand the accountability she deserved from the very beginning,” Attys. Crump and Baker said in their joint statement. “We will not stop fighting until her life, and the lives of all Black women, is valued equally under the law.”