A former Kentucky police officer has been found guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during a flawed raid that led to her death in her home four years ago.
Brett Hankison, 47, now faces a possible life sentence after being convicted for using excessive force against Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician.
However, he was acquitted on a separate charge related to the civil rights of one of Taylor’s neighbors. This was Hankison’s third trial connected to the case, and his conviction marks the first time any officer has been held accountable in the deadly March 13, 2020, raid that made Taylor’s name a symbol in the 2020 racial justice movement.
According to the Louisville Courier Journal, members of Breonna Taylor’s family broke down in tears in court after the verdict was announced on Friday. Prosecutors requested that Brett Hankison be taken into custody immediately, but the judge denied this request.
The jury, composed of five white men, one Black man, and six white women, began their deliberations on Wednesday. The indictment charged Hankison with violating Taylor’s right to protection from unreasonable seizures and infringing on her neighbors’ right to liberty without due process. Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment, claiming he did so to protect other officers after Taylor’s boyfriend fired when officers broke down the door.
Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mother, shared with the Courier Journal that as the jury deliberations dragged on, she started to feel “defeated.” However, she expressed relief that the trial had finally concluded.
“1,694 days it took. It was long, it was hard, it was — I don’t know if I’ve got some words (other than) ‘thank God.'”, she said.
During his retrial, Brett Hankison testified for two days, telling jurors he fired shots to protect himself and his fellow officers. Hankison was the first of the four officers involved in the Breonna Taylor case to face a jury. Another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, admitted to falsifying the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment, while federal charges against two other officers were dismissed earlier this year. However, the U.S. Justice Department recently filed new charges against them.
The incident began when plainclothes officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant on Taylor’s apartment early in the morning. Authorities suspected her former boyfriend might be hiding drugs there. As officers broke in, Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a single shot, hitting Sgt. John Mattingly in the leg, believing they were intruders since he claimed they hadn’t identified themselves as police.
Three officers then returned fire with 32 bullets, one of which fatally struck Taylor. The officer responsible for that shot was not charged, as prosecutors ruled his use of deadly force justified because Walker had fired first. Although none of Hankison’s shots hit anyone, they entered a neighboring apartment where a man, a pregnant woman, and a five-year-old were sleeping.
A later police report contained inaccuracies, stating Taylor had no injuries and no forced entry was used, despite officers having used a battering ram. Hankison was dismissed from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020. His first federal trial last year ended in a mistrial, and in 2022, he was acquitted of three felony wanton endangerment charges by a Kentucky state jury.
Following the incident, the city paid settlements to Taylor’s family and Walker, and Louisville implemented various police reforms. Hankison is scheduled for sentencing on March 12 of next year.
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