LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville police officer who used a battering ram to smash down Breonna Taylor’s front door testified in federal court Thursday that the gunshots that rang out soon after were the “loudest I’ve ever heard.”
Police gunfire killed Taylor, a Black 26-year-old medical technician, who had been woken from her bed moments earlier when officers showed up to serve a warrant in 2020. Taylor’s friend fired a shot as the door was smashed in by Detective Mike Nobles.
“We were in an echo chamber there, so the shots were louder than normal,” Nobles testified Thursday on the fourth day of the attack. the trial of former Louisville officer Brett Hankison in US court. “It was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard.”
Federal prosecutors say Hankison shot blindly at Taylor’s windows and a sliding door, endangering her and her neighbors. Taylor was killed by officers’ shots at the door. None of Hankison’s shots hit anyone.
He is accused of violating the civil rights of Taylor and her neighbors, who were shot in their apartment the night of the raid.
A trial with the same charges against Hankison ended in a mistrial last yearand a state jury acquitted Hankison in 2022 of three counts of wanton endangerment.
Nobles was near the front door in the hallway of Taylor’s apartment complex when the shots rang out. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot once, striking Sgt. John Mattingly in the leg. Police returned fire, shooting 32 rounds, including Hankison’s 10 shots fired after he left the doorway and turned the corner of the apartment.
Nobles was called to testify by Hankison’s attorneys after U.S. Justice Department prosecutors wrapped up their case Wednesday. Prosecutors called fewer witnesses at this retrial and did not call Walker to testify. They have also highlighted shots fired by Hankison that flew near the front door, arguing that it endangered a fellow officer.
Under cross-examination by prosecutors Thursday, Nobles acknowledged that he would not have shot at Taylor’s windows like Hankison. Several witnesses called by prosecutors earlier this week, including new Louisville Police Chief Paul Humphrey, testified that officers are trained to identify a target before shooting.
Prosecutors also showed testimony Nobles gave before a federal grand jury in which he said he would not have blindly shot into Taylor’s windows “because this is not Iraq.”
The shooting of Taylor “made the police look bad” and disrupted his law enforcement career, Nobles testified.
“The dream of having a life and being promoted to lieutenant is gone,” he said. “I’m leaving as soon as my 20-year (retirement eligibility) hits.”
Hankison is expected to testify Monday. In previous testimony, he has argued that he made a quick decision after he thought his fellow officers were being shot at by someone inside with a rifle.