The fate of the only officer charged in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor was in the hands of a jury Thursday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The fate of the only officer charged in the raid that killed Breonna Taylor was in the hands of a jury Thursday. Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment, punishable by one to five years in prison, for firing shots that ripped into the home of Taylor’s next-door neighbors. Hankison’s attorneys never contested the ballistics evidence. The former narcotics detective, fired by Louisville Police for shooting blindly during the raid, admitted to shooting through Taylor’s patio door and bedroom window, but said he did so to save his fellow officers. Asked if he did anything wrong that night, he said “absolutely not.” Hankison,45, testified that he saw a muzzle flash from Taylor’s darkened hallway after police burst through the door and thought officers were under heavy fire, so he quickly wheeled around a corner and sprayed bullets through the door and window, hoping to end the threat. Prosecutor Barbara Maines Whaley disputed whether Hankison could see into Taylor’s front door when the first shot was fired. “He was never in the doorway,” Whaley told jurors in her closing argument. “His wanton conduct could have multiplied one tragic death, Breonna Taylor, his wanton conduct could have multiplied her death by three, easily.
