A sentencing listening to is scheduled to happen Monday for Brett Hankison, a former Kentucky police officer who was convicted within the dying of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician.
Taylor was shot and killed on March 13, 2020, throughout a botched drug raid approved by the Louisville Metro Police Division. A Louisville detective on the time, Hankison, 46, was discovered responsible final November of violating Taylor’s civil rights whereas executing a search warrant on her dwelling, which resulted within the tragedy.
The listening to drew a crowd exterior the federal courthouse in downtown Louisville, and a minimum of 4 folks, together with Taylor’s aunt, Bianca Austin, had been detained Monday afternoon, CBS affiliate WLKY reported.
Police stated people had been “creating confrontation, kicking vehicles” and “creating an unsafe environment.” It wasn’t instantly clear what costs can be filed.
There have been additionally protesters when a federal jury in Louisville convicted Hankison on one rely of civil rights abuse final 12 months. He was accused of depriving Taylor of her constitutional rights when he, separate from different officers with him on the scene, used extreme pressure to fireside a number of pictures by a sliding glass door and window on the aspect of her constructing, regardless of each being lined by blinds and curtains.
The jury discovered that Hankison used a harmful weapon when he dedicated the offense and that his actions concerned an try and kill, though the pictures he fired didn’t strike Taylor, the U.S. Division of Justice stated after his conviction. He initially confronted a second rely for allegedly depriving Taylor’s neighbors of their constitutional rights, as his bullets pierced by the partitions and narrowly missed a household of three within the adjoining condo, however jurors discovered him not responsible on that cost.
Hankison had pleaded not responsible to every of the fees. After his conviction, the Justice Division requested in a sentencing memo that he serve simply sooner or later in jail, adopted by three years of supervised launch, one thing civil rights legal professional Ben Crump, who represents Taylor’s household, referred to as “an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury’s decision.”
“This sets a dangerous precedent,” Crump stated in a press release responding to the memo. “When a police officer is found guilty of violating someone’s constitutional rights, there must be real accountability and justice. Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity.”
Taylor’s dying sparked a nationwide outcry and contributed considerably to a interval of public reckoning that adopted over what critics stated was systemic racial injustice and police brutality within the U.S. After she was killed, police discovered no proof of narcotics inside her dwelling.
This undated picture exhibits Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.
Picture supplied by Taylor household legal professional Sam Aguiar by way of AP
Proof offered throughout Hankison’s trial confirmed that he and two colleagues, former Louisville officers Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, arrived at Taylor’s dwelling at 12:45 a.m. on the night time of the deadly taking pictures, whereas she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had been asleep. Believing intruders had been breaking into the residence, Walker fired one shot from his personal gun towards the officers he had mistaken for civilian trespassers. The shot wounded Mattingly and prompted all three officers to open fireplace into the condo.
Two different Louisville officers, former detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany, additionally face costs over Taylor’s dying. Jaynes and Meany are charged with federal civil rights offenses and obstruction of justice for his or her involvement within the getting ready and authorizing an affidavit for the search warrant that finally led to the taking pictures.
One other former Louisville officer, Kelly Goodlett, has pleaded responsible to at least one rely of conspiracy for serving to Jaynes and Meany acquire the warrant. Trials for Jaynes and Meany have but to happen.
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