(Reuters)
A former Kentucky police officer has been found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was murdered in her own home during a botched raid four years ago.
Brett Hankison, 47, faces life in prison after being convicted of using excessive force against the 26-year-old emergency room technician.
But the jury also found him not guilty of another charge of violating the civil rights of one of Taylor’s neighbors. It was the third time Hankison had been tried in the case.
The verdict marks the first time an officer has been convicted in the deadly March 13, 2020, raid that made Taylor’s name a rallying cry during that year’s racial justice unrest.
This was Brett Hankison’s third trial (Getty Images)
According to the Louisville Courier Journal, members of Taylor’s family broke down in tears in court after Friday’s ruling.
Prosecutors wanted Hankison immediately taken into custody, but their request was denied by the judge, the local newspaper reported.
The jury, consisting of five white men, one black man and six white women, began its deliberations on Wednesday.
The suit accused Hankison of denying Taylor the right to be free from unreasonable seizures and denying her neighbors the right to be free from deprivation of liberty without due process of law.
He shot her apartment 10 times to, he said, protect fellow officers when Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire as officers broke down the door.
According to the Courier Journal, Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said after the verdict that she began to feel “defeated” as the jury’s deliberations continued, but that she was “glad” the trial was over.
“It lasted 1,694 days. It was long, it was hard, it was – I don’t know if I have any words (other than) ‘Thank God.’” she said.
Hankison took the stand during two days of testimony during the retrial, telling jurors he was “trying to stay alive, trying to keep my partners alive.”
He was the first of four officers charged in the case to face a jury.
Another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to forging the search warrant for Taylor’s home.
Federal charges against the remaining two officers were dismissed by a judge earlier this year. The US Department of Justice recently indicted the two on new charges.
Taylor was killed after plainclothes officers executed a search warrant. They burst into her apartment in the early morning hours while she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping.
Authorities believed Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was using her home to hide narcotics.
Mr Walker fired a single shot as they smashed the door, hitting an officer, Sergeant John Mattingly, in the leg. Mr Walker said the officers had not announced themselves as police and he believed they were intruders.
The three officers returned fire, firing 32 bullets into the apartment.
Another officer fired the shot that killed Taylor, but prosecutors said his use of deadly force was justified because Walker opened fire first.
None of Hankison’s bullets hit anyone, but they did enter a neighboring property where a pregnant woman, a five-year-old and a man had been sleeping.
A subsequent police report contained errors, including listing Taylor’s injuries as “none” and saying no force was used to gain entry, while a battering ram was used.
Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020.
His previous federal case last year ended in a mistrial when the jury told the judge they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
He was previously tried by a Kentucky state jury in March 2022 and acquitted of three counts of wanton endangerment.
Taylor’s family and Walker both received settlements from the city over the incident.
A series of police reforms were also implemented in Louisville.
Hankison will be sentenced on March 12 next year.