A former St. Louis officer broke down crying as he said he believed his fellow officers were being killed by Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend when he returned fire in the wild shootout during the botched no-knock warrant raid.
Ex-Louisville Metro Police Officer Brett Hankison, 45, testified on Wednesday that when officers broke through the door of Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020, everything was pitch black.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired at them with a 9mm handgun, thinking they were intruders, but Hankison said that because of the poor visibility, Walker’s pose and the bright flash of the gun, he believed the officers were being shot at with an AR-15 rifle.
‘It appeared to me like they’re being executed with this rifle,’ Hankison said as he started crying recalling the moment Walker shot Sgt. Jon Mattingly in the leg.
When asked how he responded, Hankison said: ‘I returned fire.
‘I felt helpless that I had a handgun fighting against a rifle.’
He said that due to the darkness, he fired his weapon at where he believed Walker was in order to assist his fellow officers. He said the chaotic shootout lasted between five to ten seconds.
Hankison added that the incident was the first time he ever fired his weapon while in the line of duty.
Although the former officer fired 10 shots near the side door of the Louisville apartment complex, prosecutors said the bullets endangered Taylor’s neighbors, including a couple and their unborn child.
Hankison is charged with three counts of wanton endangerment, a low-level felony that could yield up to five years in prison.
Louisville Metro Police Officer Brett Hankison testified he fired his weapon for the first time in his career during the raid at Breonna Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020
Hankison said the officers quickly helped Mattingly out of the apartment complex and he quickly informed incoming officers of the situation inside.
He added that as the situation calmed, Walker stepped out of the apartment with his hands up and Hankison instructed him to come closer as he questioned the man about the police shooting.
Assistant Kentucky Attorney General Barbara Maines Whaley, in her opening statement last week, told jurors that the case is not about the killing of Taylor, for which the city of Louisville paid a settlement to the slain woman´s family.
She said the charges are focused on Hankinson´s decision to fire blindly through Taylor´s apartment, endangering her neighbors.
Before Taylor’s door was breached, Hankison had argued with a neighbor, telling him to get back inside.
‘This escalated the situation,’ Whaley said. Then, once the shooting started, ‘He´s shooting in a different direction than the other two detectives,’ she said.
Defense attorney Stewart Mathews countered that Hankison was justified in what he did during a chaotic scene that lasted about 10 to 15 seconds from when Taylor’s door was breached to when the shooting stopped.
‘This case is not about the death of Breonna Taylor, but in a sense it’s totally about that, because that’s what started this whole situation,’ Mathews said. ‘Breonna Taylor was a peripheral part of this whole deal, but she was tied into it,’ and their no-knock warrant meant officers had been approved to go inside.
A neighbor described how Taylor’s boyfriend tried to perform CPR on her after she was shot. The 26-year-old victim, who was a Louisville emergency medical technician, could not be saved
Once Taylor´s boyfriend fired at the people breaking down her door and other officers fired back, Hankison ‘was attempting to defend and save the lives of his fellow officers who he thought were still caught in that fatal funnel inside that doorway,’ Mathews said, ‘as he was taught to do — he was taught to shoot until the threat is stopped.’
On cross-examination, witness Cody Etherton acknowledged that ‘the whole thing was chaotic.’
‘From the time I got woke up, hearing boom, to the gunfire coming through my apartment, nearly killing my girlfriend, yeah it was chaotic,’ he said.
Etheron added: ‘Another one or two inches and I woulda gotten shot. I would have never gotten to meet my son.’
Mathews also raised the $12 million civil suit Etherton and expectant girlfriend Chelsey Napper have filed against the city and its police department, among others. ‘That´s not influencing your testimony, the fact that you want to get some money out of this?’ Mathews asked.
‘Of course we want to be compensated, but Chelsey and I have never talked about how much money we want out of this,’ Etherton said.
Hankison’s defense attorney Stewart Mathews said Hankison was justified in what he did during a chaotic scene. Pictured: in the Louisville courthouse Wednesday
The Glock police believe Taylor’s boyfriend used during the shootout is pictured in this handout photo from 2020
Shortly before she was shot, Taylor was preparing to settle in for the night and head to bed. Her bedroom is pictured in this file handout
Hankison is pictured in a file photo taken on the day of the shooting
Judge Ann Bailey Smith swore in ten men and five women as jurors and alternates to hear the case. The court declined to release information about their races or ethnicities.
Hankison’s jury was selected from a larger-than-normal pool because of the the national publicity Taylor’s case has attracted since the deadly raid on March 13, 2020.
Taylor´s name, along with George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery – black men who died in encounters with police and white pursuers – became rallying cries during racial justice protests seen worldwide in 2020.
The 12 jurors and three alternates are expected to tour Taylor’s apartment and hear testimony from Hankison during the trial that’s expected to take two weeks.
Several other current and former police officers are expected to testify.
The 26-year-old Black woman worked as an emergency medical tech and was settling down for bed when Louisville officers with a narcotics warrant kicked in her door.
They drew fire from Taylor´s boyfriend, who said he thought an intruder was breaking in. Two officers at the door returned fire, killing Taylor.
Neither one was charged in her death, though one of the officers was struck by a bullet in the leg. The city of Louisville settled her family’s wrongful death lawsuit in September 2020 for $12 million.
