A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Kentucky police detective of using excessive force Breona Taylor during the botched 2020 drug raid that killed her.
The 12-member jury reached the late verdict after acquitting Brett Hankison earlier in the evening of charges that he used excessive force against Taylor’s neighbors, but opted to continue deliberating on the second charge.
Some jurors were in tears as the verdict was read out Friday around 9:30 p.m. They had previously indicated in two separate messages to the judge that they were in custody on charges of using excessive force against Taylor, but chose to continue deliberating. The jury 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 lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jurors took the time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”
Dylan Lovan/AP
Hankison fired ten shots at Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid, but did not hit anyone. Some shots flew into a neighbor’s adjacent apartment.
“Today, Brett Hankison was found guilty by a jury of his peers of willfully depriving Breonna Taylor of her constitutional rights,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “His use of deadly force was unlawful and endangered Ms. Taylor. This verdict is an important step toward accountability for Breonna Taylor’s civil rights violations, but justice for the loss of Ms. Taylor is a task beyond human capacity. .”
The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for March 12.
This was the second attempt to convict Hankison on two charges, alleging that the shots he fired during the raid violated the civil rights of 26-year-old Taylor and her neighbors. Last year, a federal judge arrived declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a decision on charges against the former Louisville police detective.
During the retrial, prosecutors narrowed the scope of the charges. Hankison faced two civil rights charges alleging the former officer intentionally used unconstitutional excessive force while acting in his official capacity. According to the first count, the officer deprived Taylor and her boyfriend of their constitutional rights by firing shots through a bedroom window that was covered with blinds and a blackout curtain. In the retrial, Kenneth Walker, the friend, was removed from the indictment and not called to trial, the Louisville Courier reported.
The second count, which remained the same, said Hankison deprived three of Taylor’s neighbors of their constitutional rights by shooting through a sliding glass door covered with blinds and a curtain.
Both charges alleged that Hankison used a dangerous weapon and that his conduct indicated an intent to kill that night.
AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, swimming pool
Seven officers entered Taylor’s apartment after midnight on March 13, 2020, using a no-knock warrant as part of a drug investigation. She slept with Walker, who heard the noise and fired a shot from a handgun at what he believed were intruders. Police opened fire and Taylor, an EMT, was shot and killed. Police found no narcotics in the apartment.
Hankison fired 10 bullets — which investigators said did not hit anyone — through a window and a sliding glass door into Taylor’s apartment. Hankison said he thought he did the right thing to protect his fellow officers.
On Monday, he testified that he believed there was a back-and-forth gun battle and that his fellow officers were in danger, the Associated Press reported, quoting Hankison as saying it “sounded like a semi-automatic rifle moving into a makes his way through the corridor and carries out executions. everyone in my (group).”
Hankison and his lawyers used this defense during his first federal trial and a state trial in 2022, for which he was acquitted of all charges after a jury deliberated for three hours.
“This case is about Brett Hankison’s 10 shots that never hit anyone,” his attorney, Don Malarcik, said during his closing arguments, the Associated Press reported. “Brett Hankison is accused of violating the constitutional rights of people he never met and never knew existed.”
The Ministry of Justice filed charges of civil rights violations four former Louisville police officers, including Hankison. The charges against three of the other officers stemmed from alleged forgery of the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant that authorized the early morning raid on Taylor’s apartment, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment weeks afterward threw out a federal judge felony charges against two of the former officers, Louisville Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany.
If convicted of the federal charges, Hankison faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
In response to the Taylor case, Kentucky passed a law in 2021, this limits the extent to which the police can apply a restraining order.
Robert Legare contributed to this report.
