LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Tamika Palmer appeared to be fighting back tears as she exited the court house shortly after a jury found a former Louisville Metro Police officer guilty of violating her daughter's civil rights.
Brett Hankison was charged with violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor and her neighbors the night of a botched raid at Taylor's apartment in March 2020.
Friday evening, the jury found him not guilty of violating the civil rights of her neighbors.
But hours later, they found him guilty of violating Taylor's civil rights.
"Thank God, he covered 12 jurors who chose to do the right thing, who took they're time to, to understand what was really going on, and that Breonna deserved justice," Palmer said. "I'm grateful to everybody involved."
She said it's been a long "1,694 days."
"I just want people to continue to say Breonna Taylor's name, and that she deserved justice, and we're here," Palmer said.
What happened during the trial?
Earlier this week Hankison testified in his own defense, insisting he saw the window and sliding glass door of her apartment “light up” with gunfire. He reacted by firing 10 rounds into the side of Taylor’s apartment.
Hankison has previously admitted he couldn’t identify a target when he fired through Taylor’s sliding glass door and window, leading prosecutors to argue that he fired blindly and recklessly.
Defense attorneys brought their own expert on use-of-force policies to the stand on Tuesday, who said Hankison's actions were justified given the available evidence, even despite him being unable to clearly identify a a target.
“He was doing what he needed to do to stop the threat,” the expert testified.
It came as several of the prosecution’s witnesses, former and current law enforcement including LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey, said they didn’t understand Hankison’s decision to fire that night, adding it didn’t align with LMPD policies or best practices.
"It's bad," Humphrey said. "You shoot the wrong person and innocent people die."
During his testimony on Monday, Hankison got emotional multiple times, shedding tears while recounting what he witnessed and explaining his decision after his fellow officer came under fire.
“It sounded like a semi-automatic or automatic weapon in that hallway executing everybody in my stack [of officers],” Hankison testified.
Hankison said that soon after officers knocked down Taylor’s front door, he felt an intense “boom” and saw a large muzzle flash which he believed came from a rifle. He said it was being held by the silhouette of someone standing in a “military shooting stance” about 15-feet away from officers.
Hankison reiterated what he’s told jurors in his two previous trials: That he was "trying to stay alive [and] trying to keep my partners alive.”
When asked if he was concerned about hitting one of his fellow officers, Hankison responded exactly how he did in 2022, saying “absolutely not.”
And in a shift from his last federal trial, Hankison pushed back on more of prosecutors’ arguments, even changing some of his testimony. Nearly a year ago, Hankison acknowledged an AR-15 style rifle was not involved in this incident.
Now, he testified, “I can’t agree with that.”
Investigators did not find an assault rifle on scene, though they did find shell casings later determined not to be connected to the case.
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