LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Washington Insider Magazine) – Jurors reviewing the trial against the single officer criminally charged in Breonna Taylor’s death walked off a gold-colored sheriff’s van Friday and strolled calmly around the apartment house where she died over 2 years ago.
Taylor’s apartment, which is sited in the southwestern area of Kentucky’s biggest city, has been restored, but one bullet hole outside of the bedroom remains visible.
Jurors went to the scene to learn more about the evidence presented in Brett Hankison’s trial, a former Louisville law enforcement officer. According to ABC NEWS, he is charged with 3 counts of wanton endangerment, a misdemeanor that carries a penalty of 1 to 5 years in jail.
The jury members also went to a neighboring apartment with counsel for Hankison as well as the Attorney General’s office. Hankison was not there on the site inspection since he was in court on Friday morning. Jurors boarded the bus 15 minutes later and joined a tiny convoy of Jefferson County Sheriff’s cars heading back to the courtroom.
On March 13, 2020, Taylor, a Black woman, was settling down for the night when Louisville cops with a drug warrant smashed in her door. Taylor’s boyfriend was furious because he assumed a burglar was breaking in. Taylor was killed when two cops at the door began firing, killing him. Both were cleared of any wrongdoing in her death. The city of Louisville reached a $12 million settlement with her family.
Hankison was not prosecuted in Taylor’s killing, but several of the bullets he shot through Taylor’s sliding door and room window went flying into a neighbor’s apartment, nearly hitting a man inside. He fired “blindly” into Taylor’s home, according to police officers who dismissed him.
In the summer of 2020, Taylor’s death provoked months of protests in downtown Louisville. Many demonstrators demanded that the policemen engaged in the raid be prosecuted with her murder, but Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron refused to allow a grand jury to consider such a case.
Cameron decided that the police opened fire into Taylor’s residence in self-defense after being shot at by Taylor’s boyfriend.
During the trip to Taylor’s residence, Judge Ann Bailey Smith directed jurors to not speak to the lawyers or to one other.
As jurors and alternates, a total of ten men and 5 women have already been sworn in. Their color or race has not been revealed by the judge.
Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, and Juniyah Palmer, Taylor’s sister, also attended the trial on Friday morning.
Prosecutors said earlier last week that Hankison’s choice to shoot blindly into Taylor’s apartment put her neighbors at risk and that he exacerbated the situation by shouting at a neighbor to return inside. She saw that Hankison was firing in a separate direction than his fellow policemen after the gunfire began.
Hankison was justified in firing during the 10 to 15 turbulent seconds between when Taylor’s door was broken and when the gunfire ended, according to defense counsel Stewart Mathews. According to Mathews, the former cop was attempting to protect and rescue the safety of his fellow police.
The trial will last around two weeks.