U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson dropped major felony charges against two former Louisville officers last week, declaring that Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, and his decision to fire at police were the real reasons for her death.

Walker, who claimed he thought an intruder was breaking into the apartment, shot an officer in the leg when police came through the door. And that’s where things went from bad to worse.

The officers, acting on what they believed was a legitimate drug warrant, returned fire, and the rest is now infamous history with the death of Breonna Taylor who was in the apartment at the time.

However, according to Judge Simpson, the chain of events that led to Taylor’s tragic end was set off by Walker’s trigger finger, not by a faulty warrant.

The warrant didn’t cause Taylor’s death.

Despite all the noise around the warrant and the protests by BLM and others, the judge’s decision is crystal clear: the warrant wasn’t the proximate cause of Taylor’s death – Walker’s actions were.

So, while former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany faced felony civil rights violation charges that could have sent them to prison for life, those charges have now been reduced to misdemeanors. The judge just wasn’t buying the argument that a bad warrant was to blame for the fatal shootout.

Still, it’s not all sunshine and roses for the officers. There’s a conspiracy charge still hanging over Jaynes and another charge against Meany for making false statements to investigators. But in the grand scheme, the ruling is a clear vindication of their actions on that fateful night.

Clearing the smoke: the real culprit unmasked.

While the media has been quick to paint the officers as villains, Judge Simpson’s ruling serves as a reminder that split-second decisions in high-pressure situations can have deadly consequences, especially when civilians choose to shoot first and ask questions later. In this case, the judge’s decision sets the record straight: the true cause of Breonna Taylor’s death wasn’t the police; it was her boyfriend.

This ruling may not change the minds of those who have already decided who the villains are, but it’s a significant step in ensuring that law enforcement isn’t unfairly scapegoated for doing their jobs under the most challenging of circumstances.