LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jury selection is underway in the federal trial of a former Louisville Metro Police detective involved in the raid in which police shot and killed Breonna Taylor.

What You Need To Know

  •  Federal civil rights trial against Brett Hankison begins 

  •  Hankison is accused of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, Kenneth Walker and their neighbors when officers shot through her window the night she was killed

  •  Jury selection is underway and potential jurors are being asked to fill out questionnaires

  • Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings is presiding over the case

Brett Hankison is charged with civil rights violations against Taylor, her boyfriend and neighbors.

Potential jurors have been asked to fill out questionnaires and answer questions from U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings.

The exact questions they are being asked is unknown, but based on court filings, attorneys are interested in knowing what potential jurors know and think about the police shooting death of Taylor, their views on guns, police, the Black Lives Matter movement and whether they took part in or were affected by the protests.

In the federal trial that started today, Hankison is charged with civil rights violations against Taylor, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker and Taylor’s neighbors for firing shots through both a covered bedroom window and a covered sliding glass door after “there was no longer a lawful objective justifying the use of deadly force.”

Attorneys are working to select 16 jurors to serve in a case that could last several weeks.

Based on court filings, attorneys may present evidence including 911 calls, body camera video and photos from the scene.

“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Aug. 4, 2022 as the U.S. Justice Department announced civil rights charges against four Louisville police officers for their involvement in the drug raid that led to the death of Taylor.

Hankison was involved in the 2020 raid in which police shot and killed Breonna Taylor at her Louisville home. 

According to the indictment, officers broke down the door of Taylor’s apartment, her boyfriend fired one shot and LMPD officers returned fire. 

The document says Hankison then fired 10 more shots through a covered window and a sliding glass door.

The charges represent another effort to hold law enforcement accountable for the killing of the 26-year-old medical worker. Hankison was acquitted last year in a state wanton endangerment trial.

Hankison’s defense team are attorneys Ibrahim Farag, Jack Byrd and William Stewart Mathews. The federal prosecutors are the case are from the Department of Justice’s civil rights division. They are Michael Songer and Anna Gotfryd.

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