A mistrial has been declared in the case involving a former Louisville, Kentucky, police officer accused of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights in the botched 2020 raid that led to her death.
The mistrial was declared Thursday after the jury was deadlocked on both counts against Brett Hankison, who fired stray bullets in the deadly raid.
He faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. Federal prosecutors could decide to retry Hankison.
He was accused of using excessive force when he fired 10 shots into Taylor’s window and a glass door after officers came under fire during the flawed drug warrant search on March 13, 2020. Some of his shots flew into a neighboring apartment, but none of them struck anyone.
During the early-morning raid, officers opened fire, killing Taylor, after her boyfriend, believing an intruder was trying to break in, fired a gun toward the door.
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Taylor’s boyfriend lawfully possessed the gun. After he fired and struck an officer, two officers then fired 22 shots, one of which fatally struck Taylor in the chest, officials have said.
The bungled raid targeted Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, a convicted drug dealer who was not in the apartment at the time. That man, Jamarcus Glover, has said Taylor had no involvement in the drug trade.
Hankison was terminated from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020.
Federal prosecutors were attempting to do what Kentucky prosecutors couldn’t — convict Hankison for his actions on the night Taylor was shot to death. He was found not guilty on all counts in March 2022 after he was accused of endangering Taylor’s neighbors, a couple and their 5-year-old son, when he fired shots that went into their apartment the night of the raid.
