More than five years after Breonna Taylor was killed during a late-night police raid in Louisville, her name is back at the center of a national debate over justice and accountability.
The U.S. Department of Justice is asking for the release of the only officer ever convicted in connection with the raid.
The DOJ filed a brief on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, urging the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to free former Louisville detective Brett Hankison while he appeals his 33-month sentence for using excessive force. Hankison fired 10 rounds through Taylor’s covered windows and a sliding door during the March 2020 raid, sending bullets into a neighboring apartment and endangering two people inside…