A former Louisville police officer involved in the 2020 raid that killed Breonna Taylor has been sentenced to 33 months in prison and three years supervised probation for violating the 26-year-old’s civil rights.
The punishment exceeds the nominal one-day sentence the Trump administration had sought for Brett Hankison, who blindly fired 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment during a no-knock police raid, none of which struck the 26-year-old or anyone else.
The requested punishment fell well short of the possible sentence which ranged from 135 months to life in prison.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings reportedly said in court on Monday that the administration’s recommendation, which cut against the Biden administration’s repeated efforts to convict Hankison, was “not appropriate” and gave the impression the officer’s actions were “an inconsequential crime.”
Hankison, who was fired from the police force in June 2020, is the only officer directly involved in the drug raid shooting to be convicted of criminal charges.
During the March 2020 operation, police forcibly entered Taylor’s apartment to execute a no-knock search warrant, though they say they identified themselves as law enforcement.
Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who thought the couple was being robbed, said he fired a warning shot that struck an officer in the high.
In an ensuing firefight, Taylor was killed.
During the exchange, Hankison retreated outside the building then fired through the 26-year-old’s apartment door and window, with some rounds passing into an adjoining unit.
Hankison was not immediately taken into custody and will remain out on bond until the federal Bureau of Prisons determines where he will serve his sentence.
In 2023, his first federal trial on civil rights charges ended in a hung jury.
In the final days of the Biden administration, a federal jury conducting a retrial found Hankison guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights.
The former officer was acquitted in 2022 on state charges of wanton endangerment.
Kelly Goodlett, a former Louisville detective, pleaded guilty in 2022 to federal charges of helping falsify an affidavit used the justify the search of Taylor’s apartment, part of a drug investigation into a former friend of Taylor’s.
Taylor’s death, along with that of George Floyd in Minneapolis that same year, helped fuel mass protests challenging excessive police use of force against Black people.
In late 2024, the Biden administration’s Justice Department reached an agreement, pending court approval, to reform the city’s police department, after federal officials found the agency had a pattern of violating the constitutional rights of and discriminating against Black people.
This spring, the Trump administration withdrew from the consent decree process in the city, as part of a series of decisions pulling Biden-era police reform lawsuits.
The city of Louisville paid Taylor’s family $12 million and reformed its use of no-knock warrants after 26-year-old’s killing.
