Breonna Taylor deserves justice, and after 1,694 days, some semblance of it has finally arrived. On Friday (Nov. 1), an ex-Louisville detective involved in the botched 2020 raid on Taylor’s apartment was convicted of violating the 26-year-old’s civil rights.
Brett Hankison is one of four officers who were charged in 2022. He faces a maximum of life in prison and will be sentenced on March 12, 2025. He was previously acquitted of federal wanton endangerment two years ago. Last year, a jury was deadlocked on the civil rights violations. Deliberations took a similar path on Friday, but after 20 hours and three days of deliberation, six men and six women agreed on the guilty verdict.
“It’s a hard thing to have to do, but they did the right thing, and I’m just grateful for that,” Tamika L. Palmer, Taylor’s mother, told reporters after the court proceedings that ended after 9:30 p.m. She noted, “I feel like there’s way more work to do, that this is just a dent in any of the things they’ve [the prosecution] done. But I definitely think it will make people rethink their actions.”
Taylor was shot a total of six times when officers opened fire into her home on March 13, 2020. They were searching for the emergency room technician’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, whom they believed was stashing narcotics at her home. At the time, she was in bed asleep with her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, when her door was brought down by a battering ram during the execution of the warrant. Walker fired his weapon at the disturbance, not knowing that officers had entered the unit.
Court reports reveal Hankison fired 10 shots that went into Taylor’s unit as well as a next-door neighbor’s apartment but did not injure anyone. Prosecutors described his actions “reckless.” The verdict marks the second conviction in the case of Taylor’s death, the first being former detective Kelly Goodlett. She admitted to falsifying information on an affidavit and the warrant that led authorities to the young woman’s residence. Goodlett pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit two federal crimes in August 2022 as part of a plea deal.
Hear Taylor’s mother speak with reporters about the guilty verdict below.