Breonna Taylor: Jury selection to begin for former cop involved in botched raid

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Jury selection is set to begin on Thursday for the trial of former Louisville Metro Police Officer Brett Hankison. He faces prosecution over his role in the botched “no-knock” raid of Breonna Taylor’s apartment which resulted in her death.

However, Brett Hankison is not on trial for any of the 32 shots he and fellow officers Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly fired into Taylor’s apartment.

Hankison instead stands trial for the bullets that did not kill Taylor because they entered the neighboring apartment occupied by a man, a pregnant woman and a child.

That’s right, the lack of charges for Breonna Taylor’s murder come even though the city determined it was a “botched” raid and paid out $12 million to Taylor’s family. Even though the officer obtained a flawed no-knock warrant in which he lied about drug-trafficking information to obtain the warrant, none of the three officers are charged in the death of Taylor. The only charge remains over bullets that endangered neighbor’s lives.

Black AG refused to charge officers for Breonna Taylor’s death

It’s worth mentioning officers found no drugs in Taylor’s apartment after the raid, which was the purpose of the warrant.

On June 11, 2020, Louisville Metro Council unanimously passed “Breonna’s Law”, which bans the use of no-knock warrants. 

Kentucky’s Republican Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, determined that the officers fired into the woman’s apartment in self-defense after her boyfriend, who was in the apartment with her, shot at them first. Cameron is the first Black person to serve as Kentucky’s AG. He didn’t give a grand jury the option of charging the officers in connection with Taylor’s death. Instead, he gave lip service, saying her death was heartbreaking.

Meanwhile, former officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove were fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was allowed to retire.

If convicted, Hankison faces one to five years in prison for each of the three wanton endangerment counts.