The jury was deadlocked on both counts against the former Louisville police officer who fired stray bullets during the raid.
NBC News reported some of Hankison’s shots went into a neighbor’s apartment, but they did not strike anyone. Police officers fatally shot Taylor after her boyfriend, mistaking the police, who were doing a “no-knock” raid, for intruders, fired at them when they entered the apartment. In response to her boyfriend hitting an officer, two officers discharged a total of 22 rounds, tragically striking Taylor in the chest and resulting in her death.
In Kentucky, a judge declared a mistrial in the federal civil rights trial of the ex-Louisville police officer Brett Hankison, who was charged with using excessive force and violating the rights of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, her partner and Taylor’s next door neighbors. pic.twitter.com/OSdtf28HeH— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) November 17, 2023
The raid was supposed to target Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, who has since said that she had no involvement with his drug trade operation. Glover did not live with Taylor at the time.
According to ABC News, Hankison said during his testimony that he could not see the outline of a person through the blinds of Taylor’s apartment, but he could see muzzle flashes coming from the inside of the apartment. Hankison also said that at the time he saw the muzzle flashes, he believed his officers were being executed.
The prosecution argued that Hankison’s shell casings were not found near the sidewalk closer to the apartment, where he said he was when he fired his shots, but instead, they were found near a gray truck in the apartment’s parking lot. The federal trial was the second attempt to hold Hankison accountable for his actions, and a spokesperson for the DOJ told ABC News, “The Department of Justice is actively considering all of our available options.”
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Source: Black Enterprise
