When a federal jury found former Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights earlier this month, Palmer said she felt like she could finally breathe.
It was the third trial for Hankison that Palmer sat through. The verdict came nearly 1,700 days after her daughter was killed by police at her home during a middle-of-the-night raid.
Years before, in 2022, a jury acquitted Hankison of state-level wanton endangerment of Taylor’s neighbors. Then, a year ago, Hankison’s federal case ended in a mistrial.
“So, just to keep hearing these things or things that shouldn't have been happening, it’s sickening. I was just kind of emotional before and all over the place,” Palmer said.
She said the verdict surprised her.“Just feeling like somebody had finally listened, that people were listening. Just that alone, and that he was not going to get away with it,” she said.
Palmer said the verdict showed that the community “is done being their punching bags.”
“I hope it sends the message that we shouldn't even have to wait on the [Department of Justice] and people like that to come in to investigate this, that when these things are happening, these are serious things that are happening in our communities,” she said.
Palmer said she gained newfound hope in the justice system after the verdict. But now, she’s scared that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration and the DOJ under his authority could undo years of progress in policing reforms, including a consent decree in Louisville. The DOJ during Trump’s first term moved away from consent decrees and did not investigate Taylor’s killing.
“We know that Trump's administration’s DOJ refused to investigate. We know that he favors the police over life, especially a Black life, a brown life, just life. I have no trust in his administration,” she said.
LMPD said in a statement that they respect the jury's verdict. The department has criticized the federal investigation into its patterns and practices, which found officers routinely commit civil rights violations and discriminate against Black people. For more than a year and a half, city and federal officials have been working toward a consent decree. But on Tuesday, Mayor Craig Greenberg did not commit to signing that agreement for police reforms before Trump takes office again in January.
The DOJ is still pursuing a case against two other former officers who helped secure the search warrant for Taylor’s home, which contained falsified information. Palmer said she wants to see them “buried in prison.”
“Had this warrant not been falsified, had it not happened, none of this would have happened. Breonna would still be alive,” she said.
After her daughter’s death, Palmer emerged as a face of the racial justice protests in 2020, a responsibility she found difficult as a private person with her entire life unraveling in the public eye.
“I don't think I've always handled it well, because some days I couldn't even stop crying myself. But I realized how important it was. I realized that somebody had to do it, and although I hated to be the one to do it because of Breonna, I couldn't be anywhere else,” she said.
Palmer said she was deeply hurt by the discourse around her daughter’s death, despite evidence of officers falsifying the warrant. The raid on Taylor’s home was part of a larger, multi-location operation stemming from a narcotics investigation. It was not focused on her.
“There were no drugs, there was no money. They didn't even know nothing about Breonna. But you can't tell people that because they're like, ‘Oh no. But the police said…’ I don't care what they said, it wasn't true, and it's been proven that it's not true. But then you're still going to stand here and say, well, she had to be doing something,” he said.
Palmer said she wants people to recognize the pattern of Black women harmed or killed by police. She’s frustrated that people still question whether the victim did something wrong.
“People instantly go to, ‘What did she do? What? Why was she there?’ She didn't do anything. She woke up that day, and I'm sure she didn't decide that today would be the day the police would kill her. I don't understand why [if] anything happens to us, it's something we've done.” she said.
One way Palmer has managed to find support and process her feelings is by riding motorcycles. Palmer passed down her love for motorcycles to her daughter, which became a way to bond with her, she said. She said she once honored Taylor’s birthday by holding a motorcycle ride around Louisville and her daughter’s neighborhood.
“I know a lot of people who ride motorcycles, so they've become my family too, and they've become very supportive. Some of them too have lost kids and whatnot. So just to even have another group of support was huge,” she said.
