A federal judge declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a judgment in the civil rights trial of a former Louisville police officer who was involved in the bungled raid that killed Breonna Taylor in 2020.
Brett Hankison was charged with violating the civil rights of the 26-year-old Black lady, her boyfriend, and their neighbors during the raid when he fired fire through a window and a sliding glass door into her apartment.
Hankison was charged with two counts of deprivation of rights after allegedly firing 10 shots through Taylor’s bedroom window and sliding glass door, which were both covered with blinds and a blackout curtain. Several gunshots pierced a wall and entered her neighbor’s flat. According to investigators, none of Hankison’s shots struck anyone.
The mistrial was declared by U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady after the jury, which began deliberations Monday, failed to reach a resolution on both charges.
Taylor, an emergency medical worker, was asleep at home with her lover Kenneth Walker when officers stormed in, smashing the door with a battering ram. The banging woke the couple up, and Walker fired a single shot from his revolver, believing intruders had broken into the house.
Officials say that after he fired and hit an officer, two cops fired 22 shots, one of which fatally struck Taylor in the chest.
At roughly 12:45 a.m. on March 13, 2020, a group of seven officers was executing a search warrant as part of a drug investigation into Taylor’s former boyfriend. The flat had no narcotics, according to police.
Hankison was charged with federal crimes three months after a jury convicted him of state charges of wanton endangerment. The former detective admitted to firing the rounds, but said he did it to defend his colleagues.
Stewart Mathews, Hankison’s attorney, stated that Hankison believed he was doing the right thing.
Taylor’s death drew attention to the use of “no knock” warrants, and the Justice Department launched a separate civil rights investigation of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department’s patterns and procedures in 2021.
Federal prosecutors announced in March that they had reached a “agreement in principle” with the department to resolve the findings of the investigation, which included the use of excessive force, unjustified neck restraints, and the unreasonable use of police dogs and tasers, searches based on invalid warrants, and unlawful discrimination “against Black people in its enforcement activities.”