A member of an armed militia holds an AR-15 rifle after protesters confront them in the parking lot of a Hampton Inn on Sept. 24, 2020, in Louisville, Kentucky.Daniel Shular/Insider
Following Wednesday's announcement of a Louisville grand jury's decision to forgo charges against the three police officers involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor, protests erupted across the country.
In March, the officers shot Taylor eight times in her home during a botched drug raid. Earlier this week, a grand jury declined to charge two out of three of the officers involved.
One former officer, Brett Hankison, was charged, but only for firing bullets into a neighboring apartment.
Community activists have taken to the streets to protest the decision. One community activist previously told Insider's Taylor Ardrey and Ellen Cranley that "We are very disappointed in the charges, and we are disappointed that an apartment building is more important than a Black woman's life."
The demonstrations continued Thursday. In Louisville, protesters in support of the Black Live Matter movement faced counter-protesters, including an armed Oath Keepers militia. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Oath Keepers as a large, extremist "radical antigovernment group" with beliefs "based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories."