Ex-officer says he believes police were under fire during deadly Breonna Taylor raid

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison testified before a federal jury Monday that he felt the shock of a shot fired at officers before they opened fire, killing Breonna Taylor in her hallway.

Hankison testified with him Retrial on civil rights charges who accuse him of endangering Taylor and her neighbors when he shot into their sliding door and a window during a botched drug raid in 2020. His shots hit no one, but flew into a neighbor's apartment.

“I felt the explosion coming towards us. “I feel the shock of the explosion,” Hankison said, becoming emotional at times as he spoke of a fellow soldier being shot during the raid. He said that after officers broke down the door, he looked inside and saw a person in a “gun stance” facing the officers.

Hankison then walked away from the door and turned to the side of the unit, he said. At that point, two other officers fired into the door, leading Hankison to believe there was a back-and-forth firefight, he testified.

“In my mind, there's an AR-15 being shot, and it sounds like it's getting closer and louder,” Hankison said, adding that it “sounded like a semi-automatic rifle firing down the hallway and shooting everyone in.” my group executed.” ”

Taylor's boyfriend fired a single shot after officers used a battering ram to break down the door. Police fired 32 shots within seconds, including 10 from Hankison. Taylor was struck in her hallway and died just seconds after being woken from bed around midnight.

Hankison is the only officer to face a jury trial in Taylor's death. This sparked months of street protests over the fatal shooting of the 26-year-old Black woman by white officers and brought national attention to police brutality in the summer of 2020.

Hankison has testified in two trials and in this retrial that he took steps to protect officers by firing into Taylor's apartment after former Sgt. John Mattingly was hit in the leg.

Hankison's testimony proved convincing – after he testified in his 2022 wanton endangerment trialhe was acquitted after the jury deliberated for three hours. A jury followed his testimony last year consulted for three days before things came to a standstill and they said they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on Hankison's guilt.

Prosecutors will cross-examine Hankison on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court trial, now in its third week.

Hankison said the night of the raid was the first time he had fired his weapon in nearly 20 years of police work.

Several witnesses, including the Louisville police chief, testified during the trial that Hankison violated Louisville police policy that requires officers to identify a target before firing.

Hankison said he saw bright flashes of light through the curtains on the glass door and window that led him to believe the gunman inside continued firing at officers.

“I saw these windows and doors light up,” he said. “It looked like there was a strobe light in there.”

Called Monday by Hankison's attorneys, Mattingly said he saw a person at the end of the hallway with a gun in his hand before he was shot.

Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, later told police that he thought a burglar was breaking in.

Mattingly, who retired from the department in 2021, said he was initially confused when he learned that Hankison had shot into the side of the apartment, but he spoke with Hankison about two months after the shooting to hear his explanation.

“I would do the same thing,” Mattingly said Monday of Hankison’s actions.

Hankison was one of them four officers who were charged convicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 for violating Taylor's civil rights. The two charges against him carry a maximum sentence of life in prison if he is convicted. The three other indicted former officers were involved in drafting the search warrant.

The federal charges brought by the U.S. Department of Justice have so far resulted in only one conviction – a plea deal by a former Louisville officer who did not take part in the raid and served as a cooperative witness — while charges of civil rights crimes against two officers accused of falsifying information in the arrest warrant for the raid were dismissed by a judge last month.