() – A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Kentucky police detective of using excessive force against Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that caused her death.
The 12-member jury returned the verdict after acquitting Brett Hankison earlier of a charge of using excessive force against Taylor’s neighbors. Hankinson’s is the first conviction of a Louisville police officer involved in the deadly raid.
Some jurors cried during the reading of the verdict around 9:30 p.m. Friday. They had previously indicated to the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the excessive force charge against Taylor, but decided to continue deliberating. The jury, made up of six men and six women, 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 long time. It required a lot of patience. It was difficult. “The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”
Hankison fired 10 shots through Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid. Some shots were fired into a neighbor’s adjacent apartment.
The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, sparked protests against racial injustice across the country.
Another jury had failed to reach a verdict on federal charges against Hankison last year, while in 2022, a jury acquitted Hankison of state charges of reckless endangerment.
Hankison’s conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he was acting to protect his fellow officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot them when they broke down the door with a battering ram.
This juror sent a note Thursday to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings asking if they needed to know if Taylor was alive when Hankison shot her.
That was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison’s attorney, Don Malarcik, told jurors that prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison shot her.
After the jury sent the question, Jennings urged them to continue deliberating.
Walker shot and wounded one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he walked away, walked around the corner of the apartment unit and fired through Taylor’s glass door and window.
Meanwhile, officers at the door returned fire from Walker, wounding and killing Breonna Taylor, who was in a hallway.
Hankison’s attorneys argued during closing statements Wednesday that Hankison was acting appropriately “in a very tense, very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They emphasized that Hankison’s shots did not hit anyone.
Hankison was one of four officers charged by the US Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. Until now, those charges had produced only one conviction: a plea deal from a former officer who was not in the raid and became a cooperating 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 in the doorway. He said Walker never attempted to approach the door or turn on the lights while police were knocking and instead armed himself and hid in the dark.
“Brett Hankison was within a foot of being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik said.
Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly, firing 10 times through doors and a window where he could not see a target.
They said in closing arguments that Hankison “violated one of the most fundamental rules of using deadly force: If you can’t see the person you’re shooting at, you can’t pull the trigger.”
None 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 because Taylor’s boyfriend shot them first.
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