Democratic Senate candidate Amy McGrath traded words with Kentucky's Republican Attorney General, Daniel Cameron on Friday over the pace of his investigation into the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.
Cameron's office took on the case in May, two months after Taylor was shot in her home during a middle-of-the-night raid linked to a broader narcotics investigation. McGrath said in a statement Friday that he was taking too long.
"The AG has failed to convey to the public that his office is making this investigation a priority,” she said, according to a news release. “In fact, he has failed to communicate much at all with the public about this case. This shouldn’t be political, but Cameron is drawing out this process as faith in his ability to conduct a proper investigation continues to erode. With more than 200 employees, including some of the top investigators in the state, why, after 100 days, don’t we have a final report by the AG’s office?”
She called for Cameron to release his findings, or hand the investigation off to an independent counsel.
Cameron has repeatedly declined to put a timeline on when his office's investigation may wrap up. Earlier this month, he told the Courier Journal he was waiting on ballistics tests from the FBI, which is also conducting an independent investigation into the shooting.
He responded to McGrath's criticism on Twitter Friday, saying, "Amy McGrath has demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the criminal justice system, the investigation process, and even the size of our office."
My statement regarding today's comments from Amy McGrath: pic.twitter.com/DsZzSkVQng
— Attorney General Daniel Cameron (@kyoag) August 21, 2020
Under different circumstances, the Commonwealth's Attorney would be the office reviewing the police's internal investigation to consider criminal charges against officers involved in the shooting.
But in this case, Tom Wine recused his office because he was at the time prosecuting Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend who shot at the officers who broke down the apartment door the night of the raid. He was charged with attempting to murder a police officer because he fired his gun, striking one officer. That prompted three officers to return fire, striking Taylor repeatedly. No drugs were found in the apartment.
Wine subsequently dropped charges against Walker, by which time the investigation was already in Cameron's hands.
