A former police officer in the US state of Kentucky has been found guilty of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a black woman murdered in her own home during a botched raid four years ago.

Brett Hankison, 47, could face life in prison after being convicted of using excessive force against the 26-year-old emergency room technician.

But the jury also found him not guilty of another charge of violating the civil rights of one of Taylor’s neighbors. It was the third time Hankison was tried in the case.

The verdict marks the first time an officer has been convicted for the deadly March 13, 2020, raid that turned Taylor’s name into a rallying cry during that year’s racial justice riots.

Taylor’s family members in court collapsed in tears after Friday’s verdict, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

Prosecutors wanted Hankison to be detained immediately, but the judge rejected their request, the local newspaper reports.

The jury of five white men, one black man and six white women began deliberations Wednesday.

The indictment accused Hankison of depriving Taylor of the right to be free from unreasonable seizures and of depriving his neighbors of the right to be free from deprivation of liberty without due process of law.

He fired 10 shots inside her apartment, he said, to protect his fellow officers while Taylor’s boyfriend opened fire when the officers broke down the door.

According to the Courier Journal, Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said after the verdict that she began to feel “defeated” as jury deliberations continued, but was “glad” the trial was over.

“It took 1,694 days. It was long, it was difficult, it was… I don’t know if I have any words (other than) ‘thank God,'” he said.

Hankison took the stand for two days of testimony during the retrial and told jurors that he was “trying to stay alive, trying to keep my partners alive.”

He was the first of the four officers charged in the case to face a jury.

Another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to falsifying the search warrant for Taylor’s home.

Earlier this year, a judge dismissed federal charges for the two remaining officers. The U.S. Department of Justice recently indicted both on new charges.

Taylor was murdered after plainclothes officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant at her home. They broke into her apartment early in the morning while she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping.

Authorities believed Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was using her home to hide narcotics.

Walker fired a single shot as the door was broken down, hitting an officer, Sergeant John Mattingly, in the leg. Walker said the officers did not announce themselves as police and he thought they were intruders.

The three officers returned fire and fired 32 rounds into the apartment.

Another officer fired the shot that killed Taylor, but prosecutors said his use of deadly force was justified because Walker had opened fire first.

None of Hankison’s bullets hit anyone, but they did enter a neighboring property, where a pregnant woman, a five-year-old child, and a man were sleeping.

A later police report contained errors, including listing Taylor’s injuries as “none” and stating that no force was used to enter, when a battering ram had been used.

Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June 2020.

His previous federal case last year ended in a mistrial when the jury told the judge they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

He was previously tried by a Kentucky state jury in March 2022 and acquitted of three counts of felony wanton endangerment.

Taylor and Walker’s family received settlements from the city over the incident.

A number of police reforms were also introduced in Louisville.

Hankison will be sentenced on March 12 next year.