A jury became deadlocked Thursday in the civil rights case against the former Louisville police officer involved in the raid involving Breonna Taylor.
Brett Hankison, 47, saw the federal case against him end in a mistrial. Federal prosecutors accused Hankison of excessive force in the 2020 botched raid that took Taylor’s life.
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That same year, Hankison was fired from the police force. Months later, he would be charged in Jefferson County court with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree. However, in March of last year, he was acquitted of all three charges and avoided as much as 15 years in prison.
This latest trial was another attempt to punish Hankison, with prosecutors seeking a maximum sentence of life in prison. Prosecutors still have the option to try the former police officer again.
On the night of the raid, Taylor’s boyfriend believed the officers were intruders and fired through the door at them, striking one. Officers returned fire 22 times, striking and killing Taylor with a gunshot wound to the chest. Hankison expressed his regret at the raid, as Taylor was not the person of interest.
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Taylor’s death would continue to fuel the Black Lives Matter movement that raged in 2020. She was an emergency room technician and was 22 when she died.
The trial took over a month. This jury deliberated for three days before announcing it was hung and could not produce a verdict.
