Louisville, Kentucky, police announced Thursday morning that more than 100 people were arrested overnight during a rash of unrest connected to yesterday’s grand jury indictments in the Breonna Taylor case. Those arrested include a 26-year-old black man accused of shooting two police officers.
Wednesday night, demonstrators took to the streets to protest the grand jury’s decision to charge only one of several officers involved in the shootout that resulted in Taylor’s death. Detective Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing his service weapon into several apartments other than Taylor’s. Two other officers, who also fired their weapons, Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, said, were found to be “justified” in their response because Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired on police first.
As The Daily Wire reported, several police officers were shot amid the demonstrations that rocked Louisville last night. Two of those officers were rushed to a local hospital where they underwent emergency treatment. Both officers sustained non-life-threatening injuries and both are expected to recover.
“One officer was shot in the abdomen below their bulletproof vest and is in surgery, and a second was shot in the thigh, according to the source,” the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. “MetroSafe said it received reports the shooting occurred at South Brook Street and Broadway Avenue.”
Louisville police also reported that the suspected shooter was taken into custody immediately. The department released the man’s name Thursday morning.
“A suspect accused in shooting two Louisville police officers during protests Wednesday evening has also been identified. Larynzo Johnson, 26, has been charged with wanton endangerment and assault of a police officer,” Fox News reported. “He will be arraigned Friday.”
The outlet added that the officers were shot while “conducting crowd control operations in response to a large crowd that had set fires, caused property damage and failed to disperse after being warned.”
“Johnson ‘intentionally used a handgun to fire multiple bullets at officers” addressing the crowd, the complaint said. Two officers were struck by bullets causing serious physical injury. Police said witnesses spotted Johnson firing a handgun at officers and running from the scene,” Fox noted. “The complaint said he was also in possession of a handgun at the time of his arrest and law enforcement recovered video of the shooting showing the suspect fire at officers.”
Late Wednesday, Louisville officials noted that the Kentucky National Guard was on standby to handle any further crowd control, and the FBI’s office in Louisville tweeted that they were involved and assisting in an investigation into the shooting.
Louisville police are also asking the public for any videos or still photos of the incident.
Around 100 other individuals were also arrested in charges ranging from damaging and looting local businesses to interfering with police attempts to control and direct the protesting crowd. Metro Corrections in Louisville, which handles intake at local jails, told local media that many of the later arrests were “over curfew and unlawful assembly violations.”
“Thirteen people were arrested” at the scene of a confrontation with police officers in central Louisville, the Courier-Journal reported Thursday morning. “An additional 16 arrests were made downtown during the day” after protesters attempted to move a police barricade.
HD Editors Note: What does this have to do with Bible Prophecy?
In a time where rioting has broken out across major cities in the United States, it is important that we understand what the Bible says about these things.
Hal Lindsey, in his article “Lawlessness Spreading Across the Land,” revealed why the rampant violence and corruption the Bible says would characterize the last days before the return of Christ seems to be describing our day:
The Bible foretold that the time near the return of Christ would be marked by lawlessness. In Luke 17:26-30, Jesus compared those days to the times of Noah and Lot. Genesis 6:11 tells us that in the time of Noah, “The earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.”
That sounds like today-rampant violence and corruption. Lot lived in a time and place of violent mobs. In both stories, we see that people lacked empathy, and thought mostly of themselves and their pleasures. Several places in the Bible warn us that the end times will be times of “lawlessness.” That, along with so many other signs, seems to be describing our day.
We are living in perilous times (2 Timothy 3:1-5) and the Bible speaks of an increase in lawlessness, violence and racial division in these last days (Matthew 24:7,12,37). We as Christians are called to walk as children of the day, especially as the coming of our Lord and saviour approaches:
Romans 13:11-14 KJV – “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
