Former Kentucky police officer is found guilty of using excessive force in fatal Breonna Taylor raid

A federal jury has returned a guilty verdict in the murder trial surrounding the botched arrest of Breonna Taylor.

Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison was convicted as a result, after jurors found he used excessive force during the 2020 drug raid that killed Taylor.

The consensus paved the way for the first conviction in the high-profile case, with one of the four officers involved released.

All had been charged with violating Taylor’s civil rights, with former detective. Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty last August to a federal conspiracy charge for forging the warrant that led to the deadly chain of events.

The death of the 26-year-old black woman sparked protests across the country, with activists claiming racial injustice played a role in police actions that day.

“While it cannot return Breonna to her family, it represents a crucial step in pursuing justice and a reminder that no one should be above the law,” Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote in a social media post message late Friday evening.

The civil rights activist then labeled the verdict “a long-awaited moment of responsibility,” as Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, hugged a friend on the courthouse steps after the sentencing.

She said in her own statement about the long-running case: “It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was difficult.

“The jurors took the time to truly understand that Breonna deserved justice,” the woman concluded

Minutes earlier, several members of the 12-member jury could be seen in tears – as the verdict was read out around 9.30pm.

They had previously indicated to the judge that they were being held on charges of using excessive force.

The same indictment had fooled a separate jury in 2022, which acquitted Hankison, 48, on a charge of wanton endangerment months earlier.

With the new jury still deadlocked Thursday, members had sent correspondence to the judge asking whether they needed to know whether Taylor was alive when Hankison fired shots into Taylor’s apartment in Kentucky.

Hankison had argued that he fired to protect his fellow officers from Taylor’s friend, Kenneth Walker, who shot at him and other officers as they broke down the woman’s door.

His attorney Don Malarcik told jurors it was up to prosecutors to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison fired the shots — leading to a bone of contention among jurors.

After the investigation, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings urged them to continue deliberating, giving them a chance to announce the long-awaited decision Friday.

The six-member jury deliberated for hours before coming back out Friday to make their decision.

Shortly before that, Malarcik spoke at length about the role of Taylor’s friend, who fired a shot that sent former Sgt. John Mattingly at the door. Mattingly retired the following year. He was not charged in the case.

Hankison, meanwhile, testified that when Walker fired, he walked away, turned the corner of the apartment and shot at Taylor’s glass door and a window.

Other officers at the door also returned fire from Walker, striking and killing Taylor, who was in a hallway.

Hankison’s lawyers used this during closing statements to argue that their client acted appropriately – “in a very tense, very chaotic environment,” they said it lasted about twelve seconds.

They emphasized that Hankison’s shots did not hit anyone and that they were bullets fired by other officers that claimed the woman’s life.

The police officer who was convicted also said Walker never tried to come to the door or turn on the light while police were knocking, but that he chose himself and hid in the dark.

“Brett Hankison was just a foot away from being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik insisted, as prosecutors maintained that Hankison had acted recklessly when he fired 10 shots into doors and a window where he couldn’t even see a target.

‘[Hankison] violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force,” attorneys retained by the federal government said in their own closing arguments Wednesday.

“If they can’t see the person they’re shooting at, they can’t pull the trigger,” they insisted, ultimately leading the jury to see that there was no doubt the officer used excessive force.

Meanwhile, neither of the officers who shot Taylor — Mattingly and former Detective Myles Cosgrove — were charged in the victim’s death.

Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany Meany led a police unit that focused on aggressive drug investigations.

Police simultaneously served five arrest warrants the night of the Taylor raid, four of them in a concentrated area where drug activity was suspected, and the fifth at Taylor’s apartment nearly 10 miles away.

The search warrant for Taylor’s home alleged that she was receiving packages for a suspected drug dealer who was an ex-boyfriend.

The order, signed by Jaynes and approved by Meany, stated that Jaynes had confirmed with the Postal Service that packages for the ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, would go to Taylor’s apartment. Investigators later learned that Jaynes had not confirmed that with the postal inspector.

Jaynes was fired in January 2021 for violating department standards in preparing to execute a search warrant and for being “untruthful” in the Taylor warrant.

Jaynes and Goodlett also allegedly conspired to falsify an investigative document written after Taylor’s death, prosecutors said. The FBI also alleges that Meany, who testified at Hankison’s first trial, lied to the FBI during the investigation.

As for Hankison, his conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He will be sentenced on March 12 by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings.