Hankison was charged with three counts for wanton endangerment. This is a felony that can carry a sentence range of one to five year.
When asked if he had done anything wrong during raid, he replied “absolutely not.” Taylor was not asked if he did anything wrong during the raid. He said that Taylor didn’t have to die that night. Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mom, stormed out of courtroom.
Hankison stated that Taylor was broken into by a police batteringram and that the blast of a gun ignited the hallway. Hankison also said that Taylor’s fellow officer was wounded in the doorway.
Hankison described the percussion of Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly’s muzzle flash as “the percussion I could feel”.
Hankison stated that he made a decision to “get out of that fatal funnel” and run around a corner so that he could see more muzzle flashes from a sliding glass door.
Hankison stated that he knew Sergeant Mattingly was in danger and knew they were trying get to him. Hankison also said that it seemed to me that they were being executed using the rifle. “I believed I could fire rounds through the bedroom window to stop the threat.”
On Tuesday, the prosecution presented its case with testimony from Chelsey Napp, who called 911 after Hankison’s gunfire decimated her apartment. It was located near Taylor’s wall. Hankison was charged with endangering Napper and Cody Etherton’s 5-year-old son. Taylor’s boyfriend was also in the house during the raid.
Hankison was fired from police after he shot “blindly” during a raid on March 13, 2020. Taylor and Walker were not struck by the 10 shots he fired. The death of the Black woman was not investigated by police.
Walker claimed that he fired one shot from a handgun to protect himself against intruders. Walker’s bullet struck Mattingly in Mattingly’s leg. Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove opened fire, killing Taylor.
Two weeks later, Hankison revealed to investigators that he looked in Taylor’s bedroom after officers had broken open Taylor’s doors and saw “a figure in an shooting stance” with either an AR-15 rifle or a long gun. Hankison’s lawyer stated that Hankison then turned around and shot through Taylor’s bedroom window and sliding glass door to “defend the lives” of his colleagues.
Walker’s handgun was the only weapon found in the apartment.
In opening statements, the prosecutors stressed to jurors that this case was not about Taylor’s death or the police decisions that led the raid. They argued that Hankison’s actions and the damage they caused should be the main focus.
