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One of many Louisville Metro law enforcement officials who burst into Breonna Taylor’s condominium in 2020 and opened hearth broke down on the witness stand Wednesday as he recalled seeing his colleague get hit within the leg.
Former officer Brett Hankison is the one cop to go on trial within the aftermath of the botched raid however not for prices associated to Taylor’s demise; he’s accused of wanton endangerment for firing 10 photographs that hit a neighboring condominium constructing, allegedly endangering a pregnant lady, her accomplice, and their 5-year-old son.
Hankison choked up a number of instances on Wednesday as he described seeing his pal, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, drop to the ground beside him and say “I’m hit” or “I’m down.”
Moments earlier, the officers had barged into Taylor’s condominium on a “no-knock” warrant associated to a narcotics investigation into Taylor’s ex-boyfriend. As they set off muzzle flashes within the pitch-black condominium, Hankison stated he may see a shadowy determine down the hallway in “a taking pictures stance” holding what he thought was a rifle.
When Mattingly was hit, Hankison stated he instantly backed out of the condominium right into a breezeway and began firing by way of a glass patio door, which was coated by a curtain. He thought the gunfire he may hear was being exchanged by the opposite cops and the armed particular person inside the home, he stated.
“I knew Sergeant Mattingly was down and I knew [the other officers] have been making an attempt to get to him and it appeared to me that they have been being executed with this rifle,” he stated as he fought again tears, later including, “I felt helpless realizing that I had a handgun dealing with rifle hearth.”
He described radioing for assist for Mattingly. In the meantime, Taylor lay dying in a hallway inside.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenny Walker, a authorized gun proprietor, later stated he fired a single warning shot when the plainclothes officers burst in, assuming they have been intruders. Three officers returned hearth with 32 photographs.
The entrance of Breonna Taylor’s ground-floor condominium.
Jefferson County Circuit Court docket
Hankison instructed the jury that, as soon as Mattingly had been taken away by EMS, he ordered the particular person inside the home to return out with their palms up. After handcuffing Walker, Hankison stated Walker requested him what was occurring.
“I stated, ‘You shot the police?’” Hankison testified.
Walker replied that he didn’t, so Hankison stated he requested who did.
“He stated, ‘My girlfriend. She shot you along with her 9,’” Hankison stated. When he requested the place the girlfriend was, Walker replied, “She’s lifeless inside.”
Hankison stated that “kinda shook me” as a result of officers had been briefed earlier than the raid that Taylor can be residence alone. “And now there’s allegedly a lady lifeless inside and that wasn’t why we have been there,” he stated, once more preventing again tears. “We have been there to get paperwork and or gadgets associated to a boyfriend that was drug trafficking and that occurred to go to that location.” He stated he initially thought Walker might need killed Taylor.
Hankison described all the incident as a “tragedy” and “one thing that didn’t should occur.” He apologized to the neighbors after which addressed Taylor’s household. “She didn’t have to die that evening,” he stated earlier than he was minimize off by an objection from prosecutors.
However when requested if he did something improper that evening, he replied, “Completely not.”
As he started to handle Taylor’s household, her mom, Tamika Palmer, stormed out of the courtroom, in accordance with the Louisville Courier Journal’s reporter.
Underneath cross-examination, prosecutor Barbara Maines Whaley tried to color Hankison’s actions as reckless, questioning why he fired by way of a curtain-covered glass door when all he may apparently see inside was flashes of sunshine. She requested if he was involved that he may hit the officers who have been nonetheless inside making an attempt to get Mattingly out.
“Completely not,” he replied.
Hankison was fired a month after the raid for displaying “excessive indifference to the worth of human life” by blindly firing by way of the door and window of Taylor’s condominium. However nationwide outrage over Taylor’s demise solely intensified when a grand jury declined to indict Hankison, Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove for killing Taylor.
Final week, Cody Etherton recounted the terrifying second bullets tore by way of his household’s neighboring condominium. He first thought somebody was breaking into their residence so he ran to the door to “defend his household,” he stated. However as he reached the door, he was hit within the face with a chunk of drywall as a bullet flew previous his head. A minimum of three bullets entered the condominium, shattering a glass door, prosecutors stated.
“One or two extra inches, I'd have been shot. My son would have by no means acquired to fulfill me and I'd have by no means met my son,” Etherton testified, including that he needed to crawl again to his accomplice within the bed room as photographs continued to ring out. “It was so chaotic.”