Hankison is pictured in a photo file taken on the day of the shooting
The only officer charged with the catastrophic and ill-planned attack that killed Breona Taylor in her own home, in her nightgown, was approved by a jury on Thursday, leaving the Taylor family still searching for answers.
Brett Hankison, 45, has been acquitted on three counts of unreasonable threat of gunfire in a neighboring apartment.
He was not charged in connection with Taylor’s death, and the circumstances that led to her murder played a small role in Hankison’s trial.
And the fact that he was the only office among the three who opened fire that night has led to questions about whether he was a scapegoat for the chaos.
He was also the only one of the three who did not fire the bullets that killed Taylor, which means that he – unlike the others – was never at risk of being charged with murder.
Hankison, a 20-year-old Louisville police detective, was fired in June 2020 after an internal investigation found that his actions posed a “significant risk of death and serious injury” to Taylor and her apartment complex.
On the night of March 13, 2020, he assisted two other police officers as a K9 driver.
There was a sergeant in front of him. John Mattingley and Detective Miles Cosgrove.
Mattingley was shot in the leg by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, when the door was broken.
He, Cosgrove, and Hankison returned fire.
A total of 32 bullets were fired by police, with six of the shots fired by Mattingley and Cosgrove hitting Taylor and killing her.
Former Louisville officer Brett Hankison (above) has been acquitted on three charges of making senseless threats for the failed attack that killed Breona Taylor.
Together with Hankison, Det. Joshua Janes (left) and Officer Miles Cosgrove (right) fired from Louisville Police Department
Walker remained unharmed.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron failed to bring charges against Mattingley and Cosgrove last year.
In a statement that sparked widespread anger, he said both officers were justified in returning fire against Walker.
Both Cosgrove and Hankison were fired from the Louisville Police Department for their actions during the attack, along with Detective Joshua Janes, who received the controversial search warrant without a hit.
Mattingley withdrew.
After Cameron’s decision was announced, it turned out that the grand jury deciding whether to charge the police never had the right to charge them with murder.
An anonymous juror in the first case against Hankison, Cosgrove and Mattingley in September 2020 said that the jury had never had the opportunity to accuse officers of murder and their decision had been misrepresented by Cameron. New York Times reported.
Hankison was charged with senseless intimidation and placed in the Shelby County Detention Center on September 23, 2020.
Two other anonymous jurors reiterated the complaint, saying the murder charges against the three officers had never been heard.
“After much deliberation, the Anonymous Chief Jury № 3 has joined the Anonymous Grand Jurors № 1 and № 2 in promoting truth and transparency in the Breona Taylor case,” said the law firm representing all three jurors, Glogower Law Firm. .
They said the third juror agreed with his colleagues and “strongly supports the fact that no further charges have been allowed”.
In the end, the grand jury blamed Hankison for only a minor accusation of causeless intimidation, which led to protests across the country.
Hankison was fired from the Louisville Police Department in June for violating the department’s policies by “blindly” firing into the apartment through obstructed sliding glass doors.
In a letter of termination, Louisville’s interim police chief, Robert Schroeder, said Hankison had shown “extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
Mattingley, who was shot in the leg during the incident, has resigned. Both he and Cosgrove have never been accused of their role in the failed attack that led to the death of Breona Taylor.
None of the officers involved in the shooting that led to Taylor’s death have been convicted of a crime. Taylor (pictured) was hit by six bullets fired by Mattingley and Cosgrove
Hankison also faced awkward questions after shooting his life out of power.
The former police officer occasionally worked off-duty at bars in St. Matthews, including Tin Roof and Sullivan’s Tap House.
In the summer of 2020, as protests escalated, two women said on social media that Hankison had sexually assaulted them – using his patrol car to take them.
One of these women, Margo Borders, filed a lawsuit in Jefferson County District Court.
“He took me home in uniform, in his marked car, invited me to my apartment and sexually assaulted me while I was unconscious,” Borders reported on June 4, 2020.
She claims that Hankison “intentionally, intentionally, painfully and violently sexually assaulted her” while she fainted drunk in April 2018.
“Margo was physically injured, mentally terrified and left under extreme emotional coercion, both because of the attack and because she felt that any effort to hold Officer Hankison responsible for his actions would have the opposite effect,” wrote Sam Agiar, a lawyer for Borders, in the appeal.
Aguiar also represented the Taylor family in their lawsuit against the city, which came to a record $ 12 million.
On Instagram, a second woman, Emily Terry, said she was returning from a bar in early fall drunk and a police patrol car stopped next to her.
I thought, “Wow.” That’s so kind of him, “Terry wrote.
“And he came in willingly. He started making sexual advances to me; he rubbed my thigh, kissed my forehead, and called me a baby.
“Desperate, I didn’t move.” I kept talking about my experience at school and ignored it.
“As soon as he stopped next to my apartment building, I got out of the car and ran out the back.”
Terry wrote that her friend reported the incident the next day, “and of course, nothing came of it.”
Another man claims that Hankison, in personal revenge, drugged him.
Body footage of the incident shows the moment when Hankison, Cosgrove and Mattingley arrived at the apartment on March 13, 2020 to break up Taylor’s boyfriend
When police stormed the building, Kenneth Walker believed they were intruders and shot at them. The photo shows the police trying to hide from the shooting while retaliating
Hankison ran to the side of the house and fired 10 shots through the sliding glass door (pictured). He was removed by the forces for blind shooting
Hankison was pictured Thursday when a jury found him not guilty of unreasonable threat. He was the only officer involved in the shooting accused of a crime
The defense claims that Hankison attended police training during an attack that took the life of Breona Taylor
Defense attorney Stuart Matthews claims that Brett Hankison’s shooting was justified during the March 2020 attack, which ended with the death of Breona Taylor.
After the shooting began, Hankison was “trying to protect and save the lives of his fellow officers who he thought were still trapped in that fatal funnel inside that door,” Matthews told the courtroom last week, recalling a chaotic scene that continued. only 10 to 15 minutes. seconds from breaking Taylor’s door to stopping the shooting.
The lawyer claims that Hankison did what “he was taught to do – he was taught to shoot until the threat was stopped.”
Hankison reiterated his lawyer’s statement during his own testimony.
The former officer explained that police officers were trained to get out of tight spots during shootings known as the “fatal funnel” to ensure their safety and put them in a better position to eliminate the threat.
Asked by prosecutors if he had done anything wrong that night, Hankison said “definitely not.”