The death of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an ER technician – along with that of George Floyd and others – sparked nationwide protests in 2020, prompting changes in policing policy and laws.
Here’s what happened during the failed raid that caused his death:
On March 12, 2020, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge approved five search warrants for locations linked to Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, a convicted felon suspected of supplying a local pharmacy. One such location was Taylor’s residence.
In the early hours of March 13, ex-Detective Brett Hankison and other officers executed a warrant at Taylor’s apartment. Taylor was in bed with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, when officers announced their presence and then broke down the front door.
Taylor and Walker yelled to ask who was at the door but got no response, Walker said afterwards. Thinking they were intruders, Walker grabbed a gun he legally possessed and fired a shot as officers came through the door.
This triggered a salvo of fire from the officers. Taylor, who was standing in a hallway with Walker, was shot multiple times. Walker was not injured.
“Someone kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend,” Walker said in a 911 call.
Hankison stood outside the apartment and is accused of shooting indiscriminately through a door and window. His bullets entered a nearby apartment, where there was a pregnant woman, a man and a child, according to the state attorney general.
None of the officers present at the raid wore body cameras, and there is no video from the night Taylor bled to death in his hallway.
