A jury convicts a former Kentucky officer of using excessive force against Breonna Taylor during a fatal attack

Louisville, Ky
AP
—

A federal jury convicted a former Kentucky police officer Friday of using excessive force against Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that left her dead.

The 12-member jury announced its verdict late last night after acquitting Brett Hankison earlier in the evening on charges that he used excessive force against Taylor's neighbors.

Some members of the jury cried as the verdict was announced Friday around 9:30 p.m.

Hankison fired ten shots at Taylor's glass door and window during the raid, but hit no one. A few shots were fired into a neighbor's apartment next door.

The 26-year-old Black woman's death, along with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, sparked nationwide protests against racial injustice.

It is the first conviction of a Louisville police officer involved in the deadly raid.

A separate jury deadlocked on the federal charge against Hankison last year, while a jury acquitted Hankison in 2022 on the state's wanton endangerment charge.

Hankison's conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he acted to protect his colleagues after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot them as they broke down Taylor's door with a battering ram. Walker shot and wounded one of the officers.