Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison has been found guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights in a botched 2020 police raid in a retrial. federal case against him
On Friday afternoon, a jury acquitted Hankison of violating the civil rights of Taylor’s three neighbors, who lived in an adjacent apartment that was also shot in the attack. However, jurors were deadlocked on another matter specifically related to Taylor and sent a note to the judge saying they could not reach a verdict. The judge instructed jurors to continue deliberating, and the jury returned a guilty verdict hours later, according to Louisville ABC affiliate WHAS .
Taylor was shot during the March 2020 raid. The three officers fired dozens of shots after her boyfriend fired a shot, hitting one of the officers.
Hankison fired 10 shots through Taylor’s sliding glass door and window, which were covered by blinds and curtains, prosecutors said. Several rounds went to Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment, where three people were inside at the time. None of the 10 rounds hit anyone.
Prosecutors argued Hankison’s use of force was justified, putting people at risk and violating the civil rights of Taylor and her three neighbors. According to the indictment, Hankison deprived Taylor of his right to be free from unreasonable seizures and deprived his neighbors of their right to be free from deprivation of liberty without due process of law.
Several witnesses, including Louisville’s current police chief, testified at trial that the former officer violated Louisville police policy, which requires officers to identify a target before shooting, according to The Associated Press.
The defense argued during the trial that Hankison engaged in a poorly planned attack and fired the weapon after he believed someone was advancing on other officers, the AP reported.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
In this March 2, 2022, file photo, former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison examines a document as he answers questions from prosecutors in Louisville, Ky.
Timothy D. Easley, Pool via AP, FILE
Initial trial the trial ended in a mistrial last year the jury could not reach a unanimous decision after deliberating for several days.
Plainclothes officers were serving a search warrant for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, suspected of selling drugs, when they broke down the door to his apartment. She was not at the residence, but her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought someone was breaking into the home and fired a shot with a handgun, striking one of the officers in the leg. The three officers opened fire and fired 32 bullets into the apartment.
The original indictment alleged Hankison also violated Walker’s civil rights, though Walker was acquitted early in the retrial.
The retrial was Hankison’s third trial, following the initial trial and a state trial in 2022 where he was acquitted on multiple endangerment charges.
As in his previous trials, Hankison took the stand again during the trial and became emotional at times during the two days of testimony, he said. whatABC affiliate in Louisville covering the case in court.
Hankison told jurors he was “trying to stay alive, (and) trying to keep my partners alive,” according to WHAS.
Hankison insisted that “the only person my bullet could have hit was the shooter,” saying there was “zero risk” of hitting anyone outside of the threat, what.
In this Sept. 24, 2020, file photo, a photo of Breonna Taylor is seen inside a broken frame at a memorial in her honor in Louisville, Kentucky.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, FILE
He said that night was the first time he had fired a gun in nearly 20 years as a police officer, according to the AP.
Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department for violating department procedure when he “willfully and blindly” shot into the apartment.
The other two officers involved in the network were not charged. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron called Taylor’s death a “tragedy” but said the two officers were justified in using force after Walker shot him.
