It's been over five years since the tragic death of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot during a no-knock police raid at her home in Louisville, Kentucky. On Monday, Brett Hankison, a former Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) officer, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release for unlawfully using deadly force and violating Taylor's Fourth Amendment rights. Hankison, who was convicted in November 2024 on one count of civil rights abuse in a United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, had faced up to a maximum sentence of life in prison.
"We got something," Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, told WLKY, a local CBS News affiliate, following the hearing. "I don't think it was a fair sentencing, but it was a start."
On the night of the fatal police raid in March 2020, LMPD officers arrived at Taylor's home to conduct a no-knock raid based on a misleading and legally deficient search warrant linking Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT, to drug dealing based on receiving packages for an ex-boyfriend.* Standing outside, Hankison blindly fired 10 rounds into Taylor's blinds- and curtain-covered window and sliding glass door.*
