LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The only criminal trial to arise from the botched police raid that left Breonna Taylor dead gets underway Friday as hundreds of potential jurors gather at a Louisville courthouse in what activists see as a chance for justice.
The former Louisville officer facing trial, Brett Hankison, was not charged in Taylor’s shooting death but is standing trial on three lower-level felony charges for allegedly firing his service weapon wildly into Taylor’s neighbors’ apartments during the March 13, 2020, raid.
Whatever the verdict, the trial could leave a bad taste in the mouth of protesters who took to the streets of Louisville for months chanting “Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor” as part of racial injustice demonstrations that exploded across the country that year.
No officers were charged for the death of the 26-year-old Black woman and many see that as a tragedy, according to Shameka Parrish-Wright, a local organizer who was arrested at one of the Taylor protests.
“There are definitely people who want to see some form of justice and will take any piece of that,” said Parrish-Wright, who is running for Louisville mayor. Hankison’s trial “is a piece of that, but it’s not the original thing we set out for. We were asking for all those officers to be fired, arrested and prosecuted.”
Despite the lack of charges over Taylor’s death, her death has led to major changes. Louisville banned the use of so-called no-knock warrants like the one used in the deadly raid, and the governor signed a law limiting the use of such warrants throughout the state. The Louisville Metro Police Department underwent regime change after the raid, and there is an ongoing, broad federal investigation looking into possible racial biases within the department. The city also paid $12 million to settle Taylor’s mother’s wrongful death lawsuit.
But the two former officers who fired shots that struck Taylor were not charged. Myles Cosgrove, who state investigators said likely fired the fatal shot, was fired last January, months after Hankison was forced out. And Jonathan Mattingly, who was wounded in the leg by a bullet fired by Taylor’s boyfriend, retired last June.
Cosgrove, Mattingly and other officers who took part in the raid may testify in this trial, according to a motion filed by Hankison’s defense.
But Hankison’s trial “is not justice for Breonna,” said Amber Brown, who joined hundreds of days of protests in downtown Louisville on behalf of Taylor. Brown has since used her skills to start a nonprofit that organizes supervised safe play for children at city parks in low-income areas.
“Nothing that’s going on in that courtroom has anything really to do with Breonna,” Brown said. “He’s not being charged with the bullets that went into her body.”
She said she wouldn’t be surprised if Taylor’s name is barely mentioned at the trial.
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