US ex-police officer guilty of civil rights abuse in Breonna Taylor death

Jury found Brett Hankison used excessive force in botched police raid in 2020 in which Black woman was shot dead.

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

Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police officer, was convicted on one count of civil rights abuse on Friday, with a 12-member federal jury determining that he used excessive force on Taylor during the raid.

Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid but did not hit anyone. Some shots flew into a neighbour’s adjoining apartment.

Taylor, an emergency medical technician, was asleep with her boyfriend on March 13, 2020, when police conducted a no-knock raid and burst into her apartment. Taylor’s boyfriend fired once at what he said he believed were intruders. Three police officers responded with 32 shots, six of which struck Taylor, killing her.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the court, saying: “It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”