A trial for the lone Kentucky police officer criminally charged in connection with the no-knock raid that culminated in the death of Breonna Taylor kicked off on Wednesday, nearly two years after the botched narcotics operation unfolded.
Taylor, a Black EMT was asleep in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, on March 13, 2020, when three undercover Louisville officers — Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove — burst into her home at around 12:40 a.m. Walker fired off a warning shot, unaware the men he thought to be intruders were law enforcement officers.
Police returned fire, striking Taylor six times. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Attorney General Barbara Whaley in her opening statement emphasized that the case is not about Taylor’s death, which brought about a civil lawsuit the city has since settled for $12 million. It is instead about Hankison’s decision to blindly fire 10 rounds into the building from outside the apartment and the other people he put at risk as a result.
While none of the officers were charged directly with Taylor’s death, Hankison, who has since been fired, is facing three counts of felony wanton endangerment for the shooting. Whaley said the officer’s “bullets ripped through” the wall of Taylor’s apartment and into the neighboring unit, ultimately endangering the lives of a couple and their infant child.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted he faces a one- to five-year prison term for each count.
Mattingly and Cosgrove were not indicted for their roles in the raid. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron previously said they were were acting in self-defense, because Taylor’s boyfriend fired the first shots.
Defense attorney Stewart Mathews said Wednesday that Hankison’s actions were also justified, adding that he too was forced to make a split-second decision.
Walker’s gunfire was enough to trigger Hankison’s instincts, Mathews said. He was only “attempting to defend and save the lives of his fellow officers who he thought were still caught in that fatal funnel inside that doorway,” he added, “as he was taught to do — he was taught to shoot until the threat is stopped.”
Cody Etherton, who lived in the apartment unit next door to Taylor’s, was the first witness to take the stand on Wednesday. He recalled how he and his pregnant wife, Chelsey Napper, were startled awake to the clamor of the officer’s busting down their neighbor’s door. Worried about his own family, Etherton sprang out of bed to investigate — and that’s when he was nearly struck by police gunfire.
“One or two more inches and I would have been shot,” he said. “I would have never got to meet my son.”
Thankfully, Etherton said he was able to react quickly and hit the floor, where he managed to avoid injury.
“I pretty much knew it was gunfire going through the wall. I do remodeling for a living, so when drywall started hitting my face, I pretty much knew. I hit the floor and went back into the bedroom,” he said. “I don’t even remember how many shots I heard because it was so chaotic.”
Taylor’s death sparked widespread backlash, which was only exacerbated by the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer on Memorial Day in Minneapolis just months later. Both of their names were invoked by protesters, who took to the streets nationwide to demand an end to systemic racism and police brutality as well as justice for the victims.
In June 2020, the Louisville Metro City Council passed “Breonna’s Law,” prohibiting the warrants like the one issued ahead of Taylor’s death. Just prior to the deadly narcotics raid, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge approved five search warrants for locations linked to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, a convicted felon suspected of supplying a local drug house.
One of those locations was Taylor’s residence, though the suspected drug dealer had not been living with her at the time.
No evidence of drugs were found inside the apartment, and Taylor’s family have long maintained she was not involved in her ex-boyfriend’s alleged drug dealings.
The Kentucky State Legislature in April 2021 also went on to place restrictions on no-knock warrants, but stopped short of outlawing them.
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