The U.S. Justice Department charged four police officers on Thursday over the death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African American woman killed in a 2020 raid on her home in Louisville, Kentucky.

Three officers – Kyle Meany, Joshua Jaynes and Kelly Goodlett – were charged with knowingly using false information to obtain the search warrant that authorized the search of Taylor's home that led to the botched raid that killed her.

The fourth officer, former Detective Brett Hankinson, was charged with civil rights violations for allegedly using excessive force, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

"We allege that these offenses resulted in Miss Taylor's death," Garland said. "Breonna Taylor should be alive today."

The deaths of Taylor and George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, became the focus of a wave of mass protests in the United States and beyond against racial injustice and police brutality.

Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020, when they heard a noise at the door.

Walker, believing it was a break-in, fired his gun, wounding one police officer.

Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, mortally wounding Taylor.

Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney who represented Taylor's family, welcomed the charges filed against the officers.

"Today was a huge step toward justice," Crump said in a statement.

Crump said he hopes it "sends a message to all other involved officers that it is time to stop covering up and time to accept responsibility for their roles in causing the death of an innocent, beautiful young Black woman."

During a press conference with family members, the lawyer went on to say, "Because of Breonna Taylor, we can say this is a day that Black women saw equal justice in the United States of America,"

The city of Louisville, the largest in Kentucky, settled a wrongful death suit with Taylor's family for $12 million in September 2020.

The Justice Department said violation of a person's constitutional rights carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment when it results in death or involves an attempt to kill.

(With input from agencies)