LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jurors in the federal retrial of former Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) detective Brett Hankison got an emotional look into the evidence of Breonna Taylor's death.
Hankison is accused of violating the civil rights of Taylor and her neighbors when authorities say he fired 10 shots into the side of her apartment the night of the botched raid in March 2020.
On the second day of testimony Tuesday, federal prosecutors brought in one of the blinds from Taylor's neighbor's apartment pierced by a bullet, with the hole still showing.
And in one gut-wrenching photo, prosecutors also presented an image of Taylor lying on the floor after the fatal shooting. Breonna's mother, Tamika Palmer, dropped her head in court as the photo was shown to jurors for a third straight trial.
Prosecutors also brought into the courtroom the gun Hankison used during that raid and the corresponding magazines.
A harrowing 911 call from Taylor's boyfriend at the time, Kenneth Walker, was also played in court.
In that call from the night of the shooting, Walker can be heard crying, telling the dispatcher someone "kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend." Walker fired the first shot at police when they entered Taylor's apartment. He said he thought they were intruders.
Attorney Nick Mudd, who isn't involved in the case, said it's like the old saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
"Certainly showing evidence is much more effective than speaking on something or just arguing something," he said. "I'm sure they did it for dramatic effect, but they also probably did it to show the seriousness of the case and the actual remnants of what was hit by a bullet to give the jury some sort of a real feel for what happened that night."
Inside the courtroom, jurors heard new testimony from a woman who lived above Taylor's apartment.
She pounded the witness stand, describing what she heard when police knocked on Taylor's door. The woman said the trauma from that night is still "debilitating."
LMPD Sgt. Jason Vance, the on-scene investigator who interviewed Hankison days after the fatal raid, also took the stand.
Vance said he "could not understand" why Hankison fired into the side of Taylor's apartment, adding that "if you can't isolate your target, you cannot shoot."
It's something the prosecution has been hammering for days, arguing that Hankison admitted not being able to see a person when shooting through the overed blinds of Taylor's sliding glass door and windows.
Hankison told investigators he was trying to protect fellow officers who came under fire at Taylor's doorway. He said he saw a person with a rifle in a shooting stance at the end of the hallway inside, but that turned out to not be the case.
Defense attorneys argue the case isn't about details discovered after the fact, but rather "what the officer perceived at that time."
"I think what the defense has been getting at all along, and getting that with their opening statement, was no one knows what Brett Hankison heard or saw. You know, they can't be in his mind at that time with gunfire going on," Mudd said. "And so certainly, the prosecution wants to argue, 'look, what would a reasonable officer do under these circumstances?' The defense is going to counter that and say, 'You don't know what it's like you were in a situation with gunfire and a police officer getting shot.'”
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