On March 13, 2020, then-Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison heard loud booms and saw flashing lights coming from Breonna Taylor’s apartment, he said in court this week. Hankison was part of the LMPD team that executed a search warrant there. That raid ended with police shooting and killing Taylor, an unarmed 26-year-old Black woman and emergency room technician.
This week, Hankison took questions from his defense attorneys and federal prosecutors. He is on trial again for his actions during the raid. Prosecutors’ last attempt, about a year ago, ended in a mistrial when jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.
Hankison is facing two felony charges for allegedly violating the rights of Taylor and her neighbors, whose apartment Hankison shot into. Defense attorneys suggested this week that Taylor may have died before Hankison fired into her apartment, and prosecutors called a last-minute witness in an attempt to rebut that claim.
Closing arguments in the case are expected to take place Wednesday. After that, the jury will deliberate on the charges.
Hankison cross-examined by prosecutors
On Tuesday, prosecutors focused on Hankison’s decision to shoot into the apartment building without being able to see inside. He said in testimony that he saw a man with a rifle through the open front door, so he decided to move to the side of the home to find a better shot. He fired 10 shots through a covered window and glass door.
Prosecutors questioned whether that was appropriate, and said he put people inside the apartments, including police officers, in danger. Hankison pushed back, saying he made a “split-second” decision.
When police broke down Taylor’s apartment door to execute the search warrant Walker fired a single shot at officers, hitting then-Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg. Afterward, Walker said he thought the police were intruders. Officers returned 32 shots, some of which struck and killed Taylor.
“It was either I reacted or five officers would have been dead in that breezeway,” Hankison said on the stand.
Hankison testified that he thought there was a continued threat to officers inside.
“What I had believed and perceived at that time is what I believed to be factual,” he said.
Testimony during this trial has highlighted differences between what Hankison believed and what turned out to be true. For example, Hankison said he thought he saw a man with a rifle inside the apartment. But police investigators did not find such a weapon there. Mattingly, a defense witness, said he saw Walker fire a pistol.
Hankison said that, from outside the apartment, he saw muzzle flashes coming from inside the home then fired several shots through the glass door and window.
Federal prosecutors argued that Hankison fired blindly, without identifying his target. Hankison previously testified that he couldn’t see anything through the window nor the glass door.
Hankison said he believed the shooter had moved by the time he fired through the side of the home, so he said he decided to shoot in a different spot.
He later learned that the muzzle flashes were from the officers, not Walker.
During last week’s testimony, prosecutors alleged Hankison’s actions were against police protocol and routine officer training. They said Tuesday that Hankison’s bullets were inches away from hitting fellow officers. Cosgrove’s testimony last week supported that claim. He said Hankison’s bullets nearly struck him.
Hankison testified that he agreed with federal prosecutors that his bullets could have hit other officers, if they had moved further into the apartment.
Last-minute rebuttal testimony
Former detective Mike Nobles was called back to testify late Tuesday. He and Taylor’s neighbor, Chelsey Napper, and each testified last week that they heard a scream after police stopped shooting into Taylor’s apartment.
Nobles said he heard “a blood-curdling scream” after the shooting had stopped inside the apartment. He said it sounded like it came from a woman, but admitted it could have been a man.
In the last hour of the retrial on Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings read two formal agreements, made by the prosecution and the defense, to the jury. While one agreement clarified Hankison’s charges, the other suggested that former officers Mike Campbell, Myles Cosgrove, Jonathan Mattingly and Hankison didn’t hear the scream mentioned by Nobles and Napper.
Defense attorneys have said Taylor wasn’t alive when Hankison fired into the apartment. They argue that mean he didn’t violate her civil rights, which end when someone dies. One of the two charges Hankison faces is for allegedly depriving Taylor’s right under the color of law. The other is for depriving her neighbors' rights.
In the 911 call made by Walker, he screamed, “Breathe, baby, breathe!” to Taylor, suggesting she was still alive after she was shot and the gunfire ended.
Police reportedly breached Taylor’s door at 12:40 a.m. on March 13, 2020. Neighbors called in reports of gunshots two minutes later. Taylor’s official time of death was approximately 12:48 a.m.
