Gay Cop Brett Hankison not guilty of wanton endangerment killed Breonna Taylor.

Brett Hankison found not guilty of wanton endangerment during raid that killed Breonna Taylor

A Kentucky jury has cleared a former police officer who fired shots during the 2020 drug raid that ended in Breonna Taylor's death. The jury on Thursday found Brett Hankison not guilty of three counts of wanton endangerment for firing shots that ripped into a neighboring apartment. 

The verdict came soon after a prosecutor said he couldn't have seen a shooter before firing wildly into her apartment and endangering her next-door neighbors. Hankison had been accused of firing shots during the raid that went through Taylor's side door and window and into the next-door apartment where a couple and small child lived.

Hankison, 45, testified during the trial that he saw a muzzle flash from Taylor's darkened hallway after police burst through the door and thought officers were under heavy fire, so he quickly wheeled around a corner and sprayed 10 bullets, hoping to end the threat. 

But prosecutors in closing arguments Tuesday cast doubt on what Hankison said he saw, challenging whether he could have looked through Taylor's front door when police broke it open with a battering ram... Hankison's attorneys never contested the ballistics evidence that showed he fired 10 times into the side of the apartment complex. The former narcotics detective, fired by Louisville Police for shooting blindly during the raid, admitted to firing through Taylor's patio door and bedroom window, but said he did so to save his fellow officers. Asked if he did anything wrong that night, he said "absolutely not."

Former Louisville Police officer Brett Hankison testimony during his trial Wednesday, March 2, 2022, in Louisville, Kentucky. TIMOTHY D. EASLEY / AP