Jury convicts former Kentucky officer of using excessive force on Breonna Taylor during deadly raid

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – 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 verdict overnight after clearing Brett Hankison earlier in the evening on a charge that he used excessive force on Taylor’s neighbors.

It is the first conviction of a Louisville police officer involved in the deadly raid.

Some members of the jury were in tears when the verdict was read at around 9.30pm on Friday. They had previously indicated to the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the use of excessive force charge, Taylor, but chose to continue deliberations. The jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.

Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid, but did not hit anyone. Some shots flew into a neighbor’s adjacent apartment.

The death of the 26-year-old black woman, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked racial injustice protests across the country.

A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison last year, while a jury in 2022 acquitted Hankison of state reckless endangerment charges.

The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he acted to protect his officers after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at them when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram.

That jury had sent a memo Thursday to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings asking if they needed to know if Taylor was alive when Hankison fired his shots.

It 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 encouraged them to continue deliberating.

Walker shot and wounded one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he moved away, rounded the corner of the apartment 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 attorneys argued during closing statements Wednesday that Hankison behaved properly “in a very tense, very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They emphasized that Hankison’s shot did not hit anyone.

Hankison was one of four officers charged by the US Department of Justice in 2022, violating Taylor’s civil rights. So far, these charges have resulted in only one conviction: a plea agreement from a former officer who was not at 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 girlfriend who fired the shot that struck former Sgt. John Mattingly at the door. He said Walker never tried to get to the door or turn on the light when police knocked 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 recklesslyand fired 10 shots into doors and a window where he could not see a target.

They said in closing arguments that Hankison “violated one of the most basic rules of deadly force: If they can’t see the person they’re shooting at, they 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 when Taylor’s boyfriend fired at them first.