A former Kentucky police officer was found guilty on Friday of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during a March 2020 police raid that killed her.
A jury returned the verdict late Friday in the trial of former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison after issuing a partial verdict that acquitted him on a separate count of violating the rights of Taylor’s neighbors. It is the second federal trial Hankison has faced, with the jury hearing testimony from over a dozen witnesses over the last two weeks.
Federal prosecutors had hoped to convince the jury that Hankison egregiously violated the police department’s policy and that he placed several people inside the apartment complex at risk.
But Hankison’s defense asserted the former detective’s actions were justified based on his belief at the time that he was saving the lives of fellow officers. During closing arguments, his attorneys also introduced an 11th-hour defense that called into question whether Taylor was still alive when Hankison fired his rounds, which proved to be a sticking point for the jurors during deliberations.