Federal prosecutors just announced they intend to retry former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison a third time as they endeavor to secure a conviction in the civil rights case for Breonna Taylor‘s shooting death.
This comes nearly a month after a second trial, in which Hankison faced civil rights violation charges, ended in a mistrial. In Hankison’s first trial in 2022, he was acquitted of felony wanton endangerment for firing shots that went into a neighboring apartment where three people, including a 3-year-old child, were present. None of those neighbors was hurt.
After the jury deadlocked in the second trial, prosecutors said they would look into any potential avenues to revive the case and retry Hankison.
Just this week, federal prosecutor Michael Songer shared in a status hearing that “the government intends to retry the case.”
U.S. District judge Rebecca Grady Jennings scheduled a tentative trial date for October 2024, however, prosecutors did express interest in retrying Hankison in the summer.
Taylor was sleeping at home with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker when officers stormed the apartment by using a battering ram to break down the door. The noise woke the couple, and Walker fired a single shot from a handgun he lawfully possessed, believing intruders broke into the house.
Hankison and three officers returned dozens of shots, although prosecutors argued that Hankson fired blindly into Taylor’s apartment and a neighboring apartment. His gunshots didn’t injure anyone. Ballistics reports determined that one of the shots fired by former officer Myles Cosgrove killed Taylor, but prosecutors determined that Cosgrove was justified in returning fire after another officer was shot in the leg.
Neither Cosgrove nor any of the other officers involved in the raid were ever charged with her death.
No information has been released yet on what charges prosecutors plan to file against Hankison for this third trial. Although they shared that they would like a new trial to start “sooner rather than later,” a change to Hankison’s defense counsel might postpone the court proceedings. One of his lawyers is retiring, so Hankison will need time to either hire a new one or restructure his team of attorneys entirely.
Another status hearing in the case is scheduled for January 2024.
