LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A former police officer in Louisville is set to stand trial again for his alleged reckless actions in the shooting incident that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor during a police raid in 2020.
Brett Hankison faces civil rights violation charges as federal prosecutors attempt another round of prosecution after a previous trial ended in a mistrial due to a jury that could not reach a unanimous decision. Hankison was previously acquitted in a state trial in 2022 regarding wanton endangerment for firing multiple rounds into Taylor’s apartment.
Jury selection commenced on Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Louisville, with the previous jury selection process taking nearly three days in last year’s trial. Hankison remains the only officer to be tried by a jury in the case linked to Taylor’s death, which ignited significant protests against police brutality following the fatal shooting of the 26-year-old Black woman by white officers. Although Hankison did not directly shoot Taylor, prosecutors argue that his actions jeopardized the safety of Taylor, her boyfriend, and the surrounding residents.
On the night of the raid, Louisville police stormed Taylor’s residence with a flawed drug warrant. In response to the officers’ entrance, Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot, mistakenly believing they were intruders, striking one officer. The police then returned fire, hitting Taylor multiple times as she stood in the hallway.
Amid the chaos, Hankison, who was positioned behind other officers, moved to the side of the apartment and discharged his weapon into Taylor’s windows, claiming he perceived a threat and heard gunfire from an assault rifle. While testifying during the previous federal trial, Hankison stated, “I had to react. I had no choice.”
Several of Hankison’s shots penetrated through Taylor’s apartment and into an adjacent unit inhabited by a family, including a child. Neighbors have testified in Hankison’s past trials regarding the incident. Despite the police’s search for drugs and monetary assets in Taylor’s apartment, they found neither.
The prior trial concluded with jurors having a difficult time reaching an agreement. After several days of deliberation, they informed U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings that they were at an impasse and could not achieve a verdict, leading to her declaring a mistrial. Jennings noted the jury room experienced moments of heightened tension requiring intervention from court security officials, indicating significant disagreements among jurors.
Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 for violating Taylor’s civil rights, facing charges that could carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland asserted that Taylor “should be alive today” when announcing the federal charges in August 2022.
To date, the charges have resulted in just one conviction, a plea deal from a different former officer who wasn’t present during the raid and agreed to cooperate with investigations. Meanwhile, felony civil rights charges against two other officers, accused of falsifying information related to the warrant for entering Taylor’s residence, were dismissed by a judge last month.
A ruling from a federal judge indicated that actions taken by Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, who fired at police, were the actual legal reason for her death, rather than the flawed warrant. This determination downgraded charges against former officers Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, diminishing their potential maximum sentence from life imprisonment to misdemeanors. They are still contending with other federal charges as prosecutors have subsequently indicted them on additional counts.