Ex-US police officer guilty of civil rights violations in Breonna Taylor's death | Black Lives Matter News

The jury found that Brett Hankison used excessive force during a botched 2020 police raid in which a Black woman was shot.

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

Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer, was convicted Friday of a civil rights violation. A 12-member federal jury found that he used excessive force against Taylor during the raid.

Hankison fired ten shots at Taylor's glass door and window during the raid, but hit no one. Some shots were fired into a neighbor's apartment next door.

Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was sleeping with her boyfriend on March 13, 2020, when police raided and broke into her apartment. Taylor's boyfriend once shot at burglars, he said. Three police officers responded with 32 shots, six of which hit Taylor, killing her.

Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside court, saying: “It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jury took the time to truly understand that Breonna deserves justice.”

Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. 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 scheduled to be sentenced next March.

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

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

Taylor's killing by police, along with the killings of George Floyd in Minnesota, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and others, sparked mass protests demanding an end to deadly police violence against Black people in the United States.

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