Feds Serve That Sandwich To Ex-Louisville Cop!

Dirty ex-cop faces at least 15 years for violating his oath of duty and using excessive force when engaging in a no knock that killed Breonna Taylor.

Winners and losers of 2024.

Former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison was convicted in federal court for his role in the Breonna Taylor shooting. He will be getting at least 15 years in federal time out.

The 12-member jury returned the late-night verdict after clearing Hankison earlier in the evening on a charge that he used excessive force on Taylor's neighbors, per the AP. It was the first conviction of a Louisville police officer who was involved in the deadly raid. Some members of the jury were in tears as the verdict was read around 9:30pm local time. They'd earlier indicated to the judge in two separate messages that they were deadlocked on the charge of using excessive force on Taylor, but they chose to continue deliberating. The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days.

Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor's glass door and windows during the raid but didn't hit anyone. Some shots flew into a next-door 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 racial injustice protests nationwide. A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison last year, and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in 2022. Hankison, 48, argued throughout the trial that he was acting to protect his fellow officers after Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired on them when they broke down Taylor's door with a battering ram. Hankison's lawyers argued during closing statements on Wednesday that Hankison was acting properly "in a very tense, very chaotic environment" that lasted about 12 seconds.

Breonna's mom wants the Louisville Metro Police Department to change and put those dirty cops in lockup for killing her daughter.

They emphasized that Hankison's shots didn't hit anyone. Neither of the officers who shot Taylor—former Sgt. John Mattingly and former Detective Myles Cosgrove—were charged in Taylor's death. Federal and state prosecutors have said those officers were justified in returning fire, since Taylor's boyfriend shot at them first. The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He'll be sentenced on March 12 by US District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings. Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, celebrated the verdict with friends outside the federal courthouse, saying, "It took a lot of time. It took a lot of patience. It was hard. The jurors took their time to really understand that Breonna deserved justice." Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., called the verdict "a long-awaited moment of accountability." More here.

Taylor was an African-American woman who was shot and killed while unarmed in her Louisville, Kentucky home by three police officers who entered under the auspices of a "no-knock" search warrant. After Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) ex-detective Brett Hankison was acquitted of felony wanton endangerment of Taylor's neighbors at the state-level, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice was charging Hankison with the unconstitutional use of excessive force that violated Taylor's civil rights. He was found guilty in November 2024. Three other officers, who were not present at the shooting, were also federally charged with conspiracy in falsifying evidence to procure the search warrant, and then covering it up.

Then Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron refused to take on the case which prompt the U.S. Assistant to the Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke made sure she pushed for criminal indictments against the three detectives.