Officer in Breonna Taylor Killing Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison

Louisville KY – Brett Hankinson, one of the police officers responsible for the 2020 police murder of Breonna Taylor, was sentenced on July 21 to 33 months in federal prison for the violation of Taylor’s civil rights. Taylor, a 26 year old black woman and emergency technician, was murdered in Louisville March 13 2020 in a no-knock police raid of her apartment by three police officers. No other officer has received jail time for Taylor’s murder—including the three other officers who opened fire during the raid and two officers who falsified the raid’s warrant. Hankinson was acquitted on state charges in 2022.

Dozens of protesters marched in the streets outside the courthouse during the sentencing, chanting “Say her name! Breonna Taylor!” and “Who’s streets? Our Streets!” After standoffs with blocked vehicles and the police, four protesters were arrested, including Taylor’s aunt, Bianca Austin. After the sentence was announced, protesters and supporters of Taylor’s family continued their protest outside the courthouse, insisting justice had not been served.

In 2020, police were searching for drugs allegedly belonging to an ex-boyfriend of Taylor’s. The officers were administering a “no-knock” warrant at Taylor’s apartment—the warrant was later found to have been secured based on false information provided by the officers. Taylor’s current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, believing the officers to be intruders, shot at the officers wounding one of them. The officers fired indiscriminately, killing Taylor in the crossfire.

After an initial federal trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial in 2023, Hankinson was found guilty by a jury in November of 2024 for using excessive force and violating Taylor’s civil rights.

Alongside that of George Floyd’s, Taylor’s murder sparked mass uprisings across the country during the summer of 2020. In Louisville, the mass uprisings were met by brutal repression from both the police and national guard, culminating in the police killing of David McAtee, a 53-year old black man and restaurant owner, during a curfew crackdown on 06/01 of that year.

On 07/17, Trump’s Department of Justice released a memo recommending the judge in the case sentence Hankinson to only serve one day in prison, which would include time already served in jail awaiting trial, meaning the memo asked that Hankinson serve no prison time at all.

Trump promised in his 2024 presidential campaign to “always back the blue”, proposing to increase federal funding for police departments and law enforcement agencies, rescind federal sentences for convicted police officers, and seek more severe sentences for any violence against law enforcement. Some in Trump’s orbit such as congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and reactionary pundit Ben Shapiro have went so far as to advocate for the pardon of George Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin.

The DOJ recommendation also follows the Trump administration’s decision to drop a federal lawsuit against the Louisville Metro Police Department after numerous investigations into the department after Taylor’s murder. This 2024 ‘consent decree’ agreed to by the federal government and City of Louisville would have attempted to mandate police reforms. The decision by the Trump administration went unopposed by the city government.

Correction: a previous version of this story incorrectly labeled the 2024 federal jury which found Hankinson guilty of violating Taylor’s civil rights as a “grand” jury.

Image: FBI mugshot of Hankinson upon his arrest on charges of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights in 2022.

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