LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal jury on Friday convicted a former Kentucky police detective of using excessive force against Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid that left her dead.

The 12-member jury returned the late-night verdict after acquitting Brett Hankison that same night of using excessive force against Taylor’s neighbors.

It is the first conviction of a Louisville police officer who was involved in the deadly raid.

Some jurors cried when the verdict was read around 9:30 p.m. Friday. They had previously indicated to the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked over the excessive force charge against Taylor, but opted to continue deliberating. The jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the federal courthouse, saying, “It took a long time. It took a lot of patience. It was difficult. “The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice.”

Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s glass door and windows during the raid, but hit no one. Some shots hit a neighbor’s adjoining apartment.

The death of the 26-year-old Black woman, along with the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked protests over racial injustice across the country.

Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., called the verdict “a long-overdue moment of reckoning.”

“While it cannot return Breonna to her family, it represents a crucial step in the search for justice and a reminder that no one should be above the law,” King said in a social media post Friday night. .

A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison last year, and he was acquitted of state wanton endangerment charges in 2022.

Hankison’s conviction carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. He will be sentenced on March 12 by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings.

Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that He was acting to protect his fellow officers. after Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot them when they broke down Taylor’s door with a battering ram.

This juror had sent a note Thursday to the judge asking if they needed to know if Taylor was alive when Hankison shot him.

That was a point of contention during closing arguments, when Hankison’s attorney, Don Malarcik, told jurors that prosecutors must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ms. Taylor was alive” when Hankison shot her.

After the jury sent the question, Jennings urged them to continue deliberating.

Walker shot and wounded one of the officers. Hankison testified that when Walker fired, he walked away, walked around the corner of the apartment and shot at Taylor’s glass door and window.

Meanwhile, officers at the door returned fire from Walker, striking and killing Taylor, who was in a hallway.

Hankison’s attorneys argued during closing statements Wednesday that Hankison was acting appropriately “in a very tense and very chaotic environment” that lasted about 12 seconds. They stressed that Hankison’s shots did not hit anyone.

Hankison was one of four officers charged by the US Department of Justice in 2022 for violating Taylor’s civil rights. Hankison’s verdict Friday is the second conviction in those cases. The first was a plea deal from a former officer who was not in the raid and became a cooperating witness in another case.

Malarcik, Hankison’s attorney, spoke at length during closing arguments about the role of Taylor’s boyfriend, who fired the shot that hit the former sergeant. John Mattingly at the door. He said Walker never tried to get to the door or turn on the lights while police were calling, but instead armed himself and hid in the dark.

“Brett Hankison came within a foot of being shot by Kenneth Walker,” Malarcik said.

Prosecutors said Hankison acted recklessly.firing 10 shots at doors and a window where he could not see the target.

They said in their closing arguments that Hankison “violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force: If you can’t see the person you’re shooting, you can’t pull the trigger.”

Neither of the officers who shot Taylor (Mattingly and former Detective Myles Cosgrove) were charged with Taylor’s death. Federal and state prosecutors have said those officers were justified in returning fire because Taylor’s boyfriend shot them first.

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