“That obviously was the first in a series of bizarre strategy choices that the Attorney General’s Office used in this case,” he said. Jonathan Mattingly.Įxiting the courtroom, prosecutor Barbara Whaley said: “We respect this jury’s verdict.” She declined to answer questions about how the Commonwealth went about prosecuting the case during the trial, which included a lot of time spent on establishing events leading up to the raid and not solely Hankison’s actions that night.įrederick Moore, an attorney who is part of a team representing Taylor’s boyfriend, Walker, in suits against the city and police officers over the raid, said the prosecution never reached out to have Walker testify in the case. He went on to blame the situation on Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who fired a single shot from a 9mm pistol as police breached the door, hitting Sgt. Outside the courtroom, after the verdict was delivered, Matthews told reporters: “Justice was done.” Matthews added that Hankison was “doing his job as a police officer” during the 2020 raid on Taylor’s apartment. In brief closing arguments that lasted just 24 minutes, defense attorney Stew Matthews said Hankison did what he had to do that night to preserve the life of his “brother officers” in a situation in which he believed he was facing rifle fire. The jury took around three hours to reach the verdict.ĭuring closing arguments, prosecutor Barbara Whaley said Hankison fired “wildly” and in the “wrong direction” during the botched 2020 raid on Taylor’s apartment and endangered the lives of the man, woman and 5-year-old child in the apartment next door to Taylor, who saw their home hit by bullets fired by Hankison. At least two of the jurors were people of color. The final 12 person jury was composed of eight men and four women. Schroeder added that the patio door and window which Hankison fired through were covered in a material that “completely prevented” Hankison from identifying a target.Īhead of deliberations, three of the fifteen jurors were selected at random and declared to be alternates who would not rule on the case. A termination letter from then-acting chief Robert Schroeder said Hankison’s actions during the raid “displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “blindly fired ten rounds” into Breonna Taylor’s apartment. On June 19, 2020, it was announced that LMPD would fire Hankison.
His charges were not for her death, but rather for shots he fired that went into a neighboring apartment where three people were present. Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment from shots he fired during the MaLMPD raid that killed Taylor. Security was heavy, with LEO counting at least nine sheriff’s deputies in the room. The verdict was met with what appeared to be a stunned silence by a small number of activists gathered in the courtroom. After a six-day trial, former LMPD detective Brett Hankison has been found not guilty on all three counts of wanton endangerment.
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