The prior alleged wrongdoing of a former Louisville police officer accused of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend and their neighbors in 2020, when Taylor was shot and killed in a botched police raid, cannot be introduced as evidence in the ex-officer’s trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday, according to WHAS11, the ABC affiliate in Louisville covering the case in the courtroom.
The United States government filed the motion in August introducing two acts of alleged misconduct by Brett Hankison while he was employed as a Louisville police officer. According to court documents, Hankison was part of a narcotics investigation in 2016 where he drew his handgun and ran between a suspect and members of the special weapons and tactics unit (SWAT) who had their rifles drawn.
In the second incident, Hankison allegedly had his gun pointed out of his car window in 2017, blocked in a customer at a barbershop who was trying to leave and began yelling at people in the shop, blowing the SWAT team’s undercover operation, according to court documents.