LOUISVILLE, Ky. • The federal government filed civil rights charges Thursday against four Louisville police officers over the drug raid that led to the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose fatal shooting helped fuel the racial justice protests that rocked the nation in 2020.

The charges are another effort to hold law enforcement accountable for the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker after one of the officers was acquitted of state charges earlier this year.

“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges, which include unlawful conspiracy, use of force and obstruction of justice.

The charges named former officers Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, along with current officers Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany. Most of the charges stem from the faulty drug warrant used to search Taylor’s home.

Hankison was the only officer charged Thursday who was on the scene that night. Louisville police said they are seeking to fire Goodlett and Meany.

Taylor was shot to death by officers who knocked down her door while executing a search warrant. Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot that hit one of the officers as they came through the door, and they returned fire, striking Taylor multiple times.

Local activists and members of Taylor’s family celebrated the charges and thanked federal officials. Supporters gathered in a downtown park and chanted: “Say her name, Breonna Taylor!”

“This is a day when Black women saw equal justice in America,” family lawyer Benjamin Crump said.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said she has waited nearly 21/2 years for police to be held accountable.

“Today’s overdue, but it still hurts,” she said. “You all (are) learning today that we’re not crazy.”

The Justice Department is also conducting a noncriminal investigation of the Louisville Police Department, announced last year, that is probing whether the department has a pattern of using excessive force and conducting unreasonable search and seizures.

In the protests of 2020, Taylor’s name was often shouted along with George Floyd, who was killed less than three months after Taylor by a Minneapolis police officer in a videotaped encounter that shocked the nation.

Protesters who took to the streets over months in Louisville were especially critical of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who presented only wanton endangerment charges against Hankison for a grand jury to consider in 2020. Members of the grand jury later came forward to complain that Cameron’s office had steered them away from charges for the other officers involved in the raid.

“Thank God that Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron did not get the last word in regard to justice for Breonna Taylor,” Crump said Thursday. “We have always said this was a conspiracy to cover up the death of Breonna Taylor. Today the Justice Department put forth the charging documents to show we weren’t crazy.”

Cameron, a Republican running for governor next year, said in announcing the indictment against Hankison in September 2020 that he would leave “issues regarding potential civil rights violations” to federal officials to investigate. Cameron had not responded to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

This undated photo shows Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. The U.S. Justice Department has charged four Louisville police officers involved in the deadly Breonna Taylor raid with civil rights violations.

Taylor family via the associated press