A jury on Friday found a former Louisville, Kentucky, police officer guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights in a botched raid that led to her death, a case that evoked widespread outrage and which led to a ban on no-knock warrants in the city.
The jury also acquitted Brett Hankison of a second count that accused him of violating the civil rights of Taylor’s neighbor.
Taylor, 26, was fatally shot by police in the March 13, 2020, raid, but not by Hankison and he was not charged with her death.
Hankison, 48, fired 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment but none of them struck anyone. Some of his shots also flew into a neighboring apartment.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said she was at a loss for words and didn’t know what to think as the verdict was read.
“I’m grateful. I’m grateful to God,” Palmer told reporters Friday night. She thanked jurors, who she said took their time to understand the case.
Hankison was being retried by the Justice Department after a first jury deadlocked on both counts, ending in a mistrial, in November 2023.
In 2020, police were at Taylor’s apartment seeking evidence in a narcotics investigation that targeted her ex-boyfriend, who lived at a different address at the time.
Taylor’s boyfriend fired a single shot toward the front door because he thought intruders were breaking in, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said.
Two officers “immediately fired a total of 22 shots into the apartment,” one of which struck Taylor in the chest and killed her, he said.
Hankison testified that he had to act quickly because he believed his fellow officers were being executed. Prosecutors accused him of firing blindly.
“His use of deadly force was unlawful and put Ms. Taylor in harm’s way,” Garland said in a statement Friday after the guilty verdict.
“This verdict is an important step toward accountability for the violation of Breonna Taylor’s civil rights, but justice for the loss of Ms. Taylor is a task that exceeds human capacity,” he said.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said, “This defendant is being held responsible for his intentional and atrocious use of lethal force that put Breonna Taylor’s life at risk.”
“Breonna Taylor’s life mattered,” Clarke said.
The officers had obtained a “no-knock” warrant. They knocked on the door at around 12:45 a.m. and identified themselves, but no one answered and there is no indication anyone inside heard them before they “rammed the door open,” the Department of Justice said.
After the boyfriend fired, two officers fired from the doorway and Hankison fired through a sliding glass door and window.
In the current trial, which lasted about two weeks, the jury found Hankison not guilty of violating the neighbor’s rights and then returned to deliberate on the count regarding Taylor herself.
The jury later came back with a guilty verdict on the Taylor count, NBC affiliate WAVE of Louisville reported around 9:30 p.m. Some members of the jury were in tears as the verdict was read, the Associated Press reported.
The charge that Hankison was convicted on carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Hankison will be sentenced on March 12, 2025.
Taylor’s killing drew outrage from across the country. President Joe Biden called her death a tragedy and said the Congress must pass meaningful police reforms.
In response to the raid, Louisville’s city council passed “Breonna’s Law” in 2020, which bans no-knock warrants by police.
Hankison has faced three trials in two years.
Hankison and three other officers or former officers were charged federally in 2022, although of the group only Hankison had been present during the raid.
Joshua Jaynes, Kyle Meany and Kelly Goodlett were accused of seeking a warrant to search Taylor’s home even though they knew police lacked probable cause to search it.
Goodlett, a former Louisville police detective, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in August 2022. She admitted to conspiring with Jaynes to falsify an affidavit for the Taylor warrant, and to cover it up by lying to investigators.
Sentencing is set for April 29, court records show.
Jaynes and Meany still face a charge of deprivation of rights under the color of law.
Jaynes has also been charged with conspiracy and falsification of records in a federal investigation. Meany has also been charged with false statement to federal investigators. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The were indicted on Oct. 1, after a federal judge in August dismissed felony counts in their previous indictment.
No one was charged on state counts directly in Taylor’s death. A state grand jury declined to indict the officer who fired the fatal shot.
Hankison was charged with three state counts of wanton endangerment for the shots that went into the neighbors’ apartment. He was acquitted in 2022.