A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Kentucky police detective of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that left her dead.
The 12-member jury returned the late-night verdict after clearing Brett Hankison earlier in the evening on a charge that he used excessive force on Taylor’s neighbours.
It was the first conviction of a Louisville police officer who was involved in the deadly raid.
Some members of the jury were in tears as the verdict was read around 9:30 p.m. They had earlier indicated to the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the charge of using excessive force on Taylor, but chose to continue deliberating. The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the federal courthouse, saying: “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.”
LMPD respects the jury’s verdict. It is not lost on us that this event forever altered the fabric of our community, and we acknowledge the pain caused by the death of Breonna Taylor. Our officers are sworn to protect and serve the community, upholding the law with integrity……
—@LMPD
In a statement posted to social media Saturday, the Louisville Metro Police Department said it respects the jury’s verdict and that since 2020, it has improved training, practices and policies and implemented reforms emphasizing “accountability and thorough investigations.”
“It is not lost on us that this event forever altered the fabric of our community, and we acknowledge the pain caused by the death of Breonna Taylor,” the department said. “Our officers are sworn to protect and serve the community, upholding the law with integrity and fairness. We condemn any behaviour that runs afoul of the mission to help and protect our citizens.”
“Breonna Taylor’s life mattered,” said assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We hope the jury’s verdict recognizing this violation of Ms. Taylor’s civil and constitutional rights brings some small measure of comfort to her family and loved ones who have suffered so deeply from the tragic events of March 2020.”
Death sparked nationwide protests
Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid, but didn’t hit anyone. Some shots flew into a next-door neighbour’s adjoining apartment.
The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn., sparked racial injustice protests nationwide.
Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., called the Taylor verdict “a long-awaited moment of accountability.”
“While it cannot restore Breonna to her family, it represents a crucial step in the pursuit of justice and a reminder that no one should be above the law,” King said in a social media post Friday night.
A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison last year, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022.
The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He will be sentenced on March 12 by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings.
Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he was acting to protect his fellow officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired on them when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram.
This jury sent a note on Thursday to the judge asking whether they needed to know if Taylor was alive as Hankison fired his shots. This was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison’s attorney Don Malarcik told the jury that prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison fired.
After the jury sent the question, Jennings urged them to keep deliberating.
‘Very tense, very chaotic environment’
Walker shot and wounded one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he moved away, rounded the corner of the apartment unit and fired into Taylor’s glass door and a window.
Meanwhile, officers at the door returned Walker’s fire, hitting and killing Taylor, who was in a hallway.
Hankison’s lawyers argued during closing statements Wednesday that Hankison was acting properly “in a very tense, very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They emphasized that Hankison’s shots didn’t hit anyone.
Breonna Taylor was killed during a botched drug raid in March 2020. Her family is continuing their calls for justice with a gathering in downtown Louisville, Ky.
Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. Hankison’s verdict is the second conviction from those cases. The first was a plea deal from a former officer who was not at the raid and became a co-operating witness in another case.
Malarcik, Hankison’s attorney, spoke at length during closing arguments about the role of Taylor’s boyfriend, who fired the shot that hit former sergeant John Mattingly at the door. He said Walker never tried to come to the door or turn the lights on as police were knocking and instead armed himself and hid in the dark.
“Brett Hankison was 12 inches away from being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik said.
Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly, firing 10 shots into doors and a window where he couldn’t see a target.
They said in closing arguments that Hankison “violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force: If they cannot see the person they’re shooting at, they cannot pull the trigger.”
Neither of the officers who shot Taylor — Mattingly and former detective Myles Cosgrove — were charged in Taylor’s death. Federal and state prosecutors have said those officers were justified in returning fire, since Taylor’s boyfriend shot at them first.
