US ex-police officer guilty of civil rights abuse in Breonna Taylor death

Jury found Brett Hankison used excessive force in botched police raid in 2020 in which Black woman was shot dead.

A former police officer in the state of Kentucky has been convicted of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose death in a police raid prompted racial justice protests across the United States in 2020.

Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer, was convicted on one count of civil rights abuse on Friday, with a 12-member federal jury determining that he used excessive force on Taylor during the raid.

Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid but did not hit anyone. Some shots flew into a neighbour’s adjoining apartment.

Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was asleep with her boyfriend on March 13, 2020, when police conducted a no-knock raid and burst into her apartment. Taylor’s boyfriend fired once at what he said he believed were intruders. Three police officers responded with 32 shots, six of which struck Taylor, killing her.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the court, saying: “It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”

Hankison was one of four officers charged by the US Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. He is the first to be convicted and faces life in prison. He is set to be sentenced next March.

Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly and “violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force: If they cannot see the person they’re shooting at, they cannot pull the trigger.”

Two other officers remain charged with falsifying a search warrant affidavit. Last August, Kelly Goodlett, a former police officer in Louisville, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge in relation to the killing of Taylor. Goodlett became the first officer to be held criminally responsible for the raid.

Taylor’s killing at the hands of police, along with that of George Floyd in Minnesota, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and others, prompted mass protests demanding an end to deadly police violence against Black people across the US.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said on Friday: “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the civil rights of every person in this country to be free from unlawful police violence.”