Former Louisville officer found guilty of civil rights violation in Breonna Taylor case

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Former Louisville Metro Police Department detective Brett Hankison has been found guilty of using unjustified and unreasonable force against Breonna Taylor in 2020 when he fired into her window, which was covered with blinds and curtains through which he could not see, on the night she died.

Hankison was found not guilty on a separate charge of using excessive force against Taylor’s neighbors, whose apartment was also hit by the gunfire.

A federal jury in Louisville returned the verdict Friday night, after hours of deliberations. At one point, jurors told the judge they did not think they could reach a verdict, Louisville television station WHAS reported.

“It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard,” Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, told the Associated Press. “The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”

Hankison is scheduled to be sentenced March 12 and could face up to life in prison, according to the AP.

“Breonna Taylor’s life mattered,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. “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. We hope that communities use this moment to say her name and to engrave on their hearts and minds Breonna Taylor’s life and enduring legacy. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the civil rights of every person in this country to be free from unlawful police violence.”

Police broke down the door to Taylor’s Springfield Drive apartment unannounced after midnight on March 13, 2020. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, later said he thought the police were intruders breaking in, and he fired a shot at them with a legally owned gun, hitting one officer in the leg.

Hankison testified at the trial that he moved around the corner of the apartment building and fired shots into Taylor’s unit, according to the AP. He fired 10 rounds, but none of them hit anyone.

Two officers besides Hankison returned Walker’s fire from the doorway, hitting and killing Taylor. They were not charged because prosecutors said their use of force was justified in response to the shot fired at them.

Prosecutors said Hankison’s actions in firing without being able to see his target threatened the lives of citizens and other officers, WDRB reported.

It was the third time Hankison has been tried on charges related to the raid.

A mistrial was declared when the jury could not reach a verdict in Hankison’s federal case last November.

In 2022, he was acquitted in a state trial on wanton endangerment charges.

Hankison, who previously worked for the Lexington Police Department, served 17 years with the Louisville police before being fired in June 2020 for violating procedure when he fired blindly into Taylor’s apartment.

Two other officers, former LMPD Sgt. Kyle Meany and former LMPD Detective Joshua Jaynes, are still facing charges.

One officer, former LMPD detective Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy in 2022, admitting that she helped falsify the warrant affidavit to allow officers to search Taylor’s apartment, then made false statements to try to cover it up.

Her sentencing is scheduled for April 29.

The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, became a galvanizing issue in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, leading to calls for search warrant reform across the nation and months of nightly protests in Louisville.