Former Kentucky officer convicted of excessive force against Breonna Taylor | Breonna Taylor

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.

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

Some members of the jury cried as the verdict was announced Friday around 9:30 p.m. They had previously told the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the allegation of using excessive force against Taylor, but opted to continue deliberations. The jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.

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.

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.

The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, and the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 sparked protests against racial injustice across the United States.

Neither of the officers who shot Taylor – former Sgt John Mattingly and former Det Myles Cosgrove – have been charged over Taylor's death. Federal and prosecutors said those officers were justified in returning fire because Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at them first.

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

That jury had sent a note to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings on Thursday asking whether it needed to know whether Taylor was alive when Hankison fired his shots.

That was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison's attorney, Don Malarcik, told jurors that prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison fired.

After the jury sent out the question, Jennings asked them to continue deliberating.

Walker shot and wounded one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he walked away, turned the corner of the unit and fired into Taylor's glass door and a window.

Meanwhile, officers at Walker's door returned fire, striking and killing Taylor, who was in a hallway.

Hankison's lawyers argued in their closing statements Wednesday that Hankison acted properly “in a very tense, very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They emphasized that Hankison's shots did not hit anyone.

Hankison was one of four officers charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor's civil rights. So far, these allegations have resulted in only one conviction: a deal with a former officer who was not present at the raid and was a witness in another case.