LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brett Hankison, the former police detective charged in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor nearly two years ago, was found not guilty Thursday of three counts of wanton endangerment.
The jury of eight men and four women received the case against Hankison before noon after five days of witness testimony and a morning of closing arguments. Jurors deliberated for about three hours before returning the verdict.
A judge told Hankison he was free to go shortly after the verdict was read.
Hankison fired 10 rounds into Taylor's apartment through a glass door and window after an attempt to carry out a search warrant went wrong. Three rounds traveled into an adjacent apartment that had a man, pregnant woman and 5-year-old child inside.
Though Taylor's death is inextricably linked to Hankison's case, she was not the victim in the trial – which attorneys frequently reminded jurors.
Defense attorney Stew Mathews likened his client's actions to that of New York City police and firefighters, running toward the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, as others ran away. Hankison could have fled when Taylor's boyfriend fired his pistol, Mathews said, but he returned fire to protect his fellow officers.
"They run towards the danger," he said of first responders. "And that’s what Brett Hankison did here."
Prosecutor Barbara Maines Whaley said Hankison's actions endangered those fellow officers, in addition to people in the apartment next to Taylor's: Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper and her son, Zayden.
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All it would have taken was a small change in a bullet's trajectory to produce a vastly different outcome, she said.
"His wanton conduct could have multiplied one tragic death by three," Whaley said.
After closing arguments, three alternate jurors – two men and a woman – were chosen at random and dismissed while the other 12 were sent to deliberate.
Wanton endangerment, or deliberate endangerment, a class D felony, is punishable by one to five years in prison. Hankison pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and had been free on bail since his indictment in September 2020.
Taylor, 26, an emergency room technician, was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department officers after they forced their way into her apartment with a battering ram around 12:40 a.m. They had a search warrant to look for drugs and cash as part of a larger narcotics investigation. Police didn't find any drugs or hidden cash in the apartment after Taylor was killed.
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Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired one round from his legally owned handgun. Walker's bullet struck Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh, severing his femoral artery.
In response, Mattingly fired six rounds, Detective Myles Cosgrove fired 16 and Hankison fired 10. Six of those bullets struck Taylor, Cosgrove firing the fatal shot, the FBI concluded.
None of Hankison's rounds struck Taylor, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said.
Hankison was fired in 2020 after an interim police chief called the rounds he shot through the door and window "a shock to the conscience."
No one has been charged with Taylor's death.
Reach Tessa Duvall at [email protected] and 502-582-4059. Twitter: @TessaDuvall.
