Ex-officer in fatal Breonna Taylor raid convicted
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Brett Hankison, right, arrives in court alongside his attorneys in the federal trial which determined that he violated the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend and neighbors. Photo: Taylor Six/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A federal jury convicted a former Louisville police detective of violating Breonna Taylor's rights by using excessive force when he fired 10 shots during the fatal 2020 raid on her apartment.
Why it matters: Brett Hankison, who is white, became the first Louisville police officer on Friday convicted in the deadly raid that was a flash point in the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Along with the murder of George Floyd, the police encounter that killed Taylor, a Black woman, generated racial injustice protests nationwide in 2020.
The big picture: Hankison, 48, now faces a maximum of life in prison.
Caveat: None of the shots Hankison fired hit Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician.
- Last year, a federal judge declared a mistrial in the first federal case involving Hankison, whose lawyers argued that he was acting properly "in a very tense, very chaotic environment."
Zoom in: Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the federal courthouse.
- "It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice," she said, per the AP.
Context: The U.S. Justice Department said Hankison and other Louisville police officers broke into Taylor's home with a falsified "no-knock" search warrant as part of a drug investigation.
- Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said the police did knock and announced their presence, though neighbors and Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said they heard no announcement or knock.
- Walker, who believed that intruders were entering the home, fired one shot from a handgun, striking one officer. The police responded by opening fire and striking Taylor multiple times.
- Taylor was alive for at least 20 minutes after police shot her but did not receive any medical attention, according to Walker and police dispatch logs.
Federal prosecutors accused Hankison of violating Taylor's civil rights by firing his weapon into her apartment through a covered window and covered glass door and using excessive force.
- Hankison faced the federal charges after he was acquitted last year by a state jury for three felony wanton endangerment charges stemming from the raid.
Zoom out: Hankison was the only officer to face state charges but was one of four police officers indicted by the Department of Justice following its two-year investigation into Taylor's death.
- Another former detective, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges for helping to falsify the search warrant used to execute the raid and for trying to cover up what happened afterward.
- Goodlett pleaded guilty last year to federal charges of falsifying a search warrant and trying to cover up what happened.
- None of the officers involved were indicted on homicide or manslaughter charges related to Taylor's killing.
Between the lines: The lack of initial charges in Taylor's killing highlighted the absence of accountability officers face for misconduct and excessive force, driving the national push for massive police reform.
What we're watching: Federal legislation around police reform remains stalled in a divided Congress, but state reforms in recent months have allowed some courts to convict officers for misconduct, a phenomenon that used to be extremely rare.
Go deeper: Breonna Taylor's boyfriend gets $2 million settlement over shooting
