Ex-Officer Brett Hankison Guilty in Breonna Taylor’s Death

A former police officer in the US state of Kentucky has been found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was killed in her own home during a botched raid four years ago.

Brett Hankison, 47, faces up to life in prison after being convicted of using excessive force against the 26-year-old emergency room technician.

But the jury also found him not guilty on another charge of violating the civil rights of one of Taylor’s neighbors. It was Hankison’s third time in court in the case.

But the sentence marks the first time any officer has been convicted in the deadly raid on March 13, 2020, when Taylor’s name became a rallying cry during the racial justice unrest that year.

Members of Taylor’s family in court broke down in tears after the verdict was handed down Friday, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

Prosecutors wanted Hankison immediately taken into custody, but their request was denied by the judge, the local newspaper reports.

The jury of five white men, one black man and six white women began its deliberations Wednesday.

The indictment accused Hankison of depriving Taylor of the right to be free from unreasonable assault and depriving his neighbors of the right to be free from deprivation of liberty without due process.

Hankison fired 10 times into her apartment, which he said he did to protect other officers when Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire as officers broke down the door.

The former policeman took the stand over two days of testimony during the retrial, telling jurors he was “trying to stay alive and trying to keep my partners alive”.

Hankison was the first of the four officers charged in the case to face a jury.

Another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to forging the search warrant for Taylor’s home.

The remaining two officers had their federal charges thrown out by a judge earlier this year. The US Department of Justice recently indicted the two on new charges.

Taylor was killed after plainclothes officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant at her home. They burst into her apartment in the early hours of the morning while she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping.

Authorities believed Taylor’s ex-boyfriend used her home to hide drugs.

Mr. Walker fired a single shot as they knocked down the door, hitting an officer, Sgt John Mattingly, in the leg. Walker said the officers did not advertise themselves as police and he believed they were intruders.

The three officers returned fire and fired 32 bullets into the apartment.

Another officer fired the shot that killed Taylor, but prosecutors said his use of deadly force was justified because Walker had opened fire first.

None of Hankison’s bullets hit anyone, but they did enter a neighboring property where a pregnant woman, a five-year-old and a man had been sleeping.

A subsequent police report contained errors, including listing Taylor’s injuries as “none” and saying no force was used to gain entry when a battering ram had been used.

Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020.

His previous federal case last year ended in a mistrial when the jury told the judge it could not reach a unanimous verdict.

He was previously convicted by a Kentucky state jury in March 2022 and acquitted of three felony charges.

Taylor’s family and Walker have both received payouts from the city for the incident.

A number of police reforms were also instituted in Louisville.

Hankison is due to be sentenced on March 12 next year.