Brett Hankison's trial over Breonna Taylor civil rights begins: What to know from Day 1

On the night Breonna Taylor was killed by police, Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison opened fire after other officers had stopped shooting, firing "blindly" through a sliding-glass door and window, a federal prosecutor told jurors Thursday.

The description of that March 2020 night by prosecutor Anna Gotfryd was part of opening statements in the long-awaited federal trial of Hankison, who is facing charges of violating the civil rights of Taylor, her boyfriend and three neighbors by willfully using unconstitutionally excessive force.

Gotfryd said Hankison retreated to safety when gunfire broke out, while other officers who fired their weapons that night did so through the front door of Taylor's apartment.

She also said a SWAT officer who jurors will hear from was shocked when he saw Hankison "celebrating" while "bouncing up and down, pointing to his chest, showing no concern" for people who may have been hurt after the incident.

Defense attorney Jack Byrd pushed back, telling jurors another officer will tell them how Hankison was not the last to fire, that Hankison was joining a team he did not regularly work with for overtime pay and that LMPD training for non-SWAT officers was substandard.

"None of Brett Hankison's rounds hit anyone — no one. He's not the last to fire, contrary to the impression" the prosecution gave, Byrd said.

The first few days of the proceeding, which began Oct. 30, were dedicated to jury selection, with a pool of 200 potential jurors whittled down to 16. That final number includes 12 jurors and four alternates.

The jury is made up of one Black man, six white women and nine white men.

The federal trial is expected to last around three weeks. If convicted, Hankison could face life in prison.

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was inside her South End apartment when she was fatally shot by police officers who were attempting to serve a search warrant in the early morning of March 13, 2020, as a part of a narcotics investigation.

When an officer breached the front door to the apartment, Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a single shot from a handgun, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.

Seven officers were on scene for the warrant, and three fired their guns after Walker opened fire: Mattingly, Detective Myles Cosgrove and Hankison. The officers fired a combined 32 rounds.

Hankison, who had been with LMPD for about 17 years at the time of the raid, fired 10 rounds into Taylor's apartment through a covered glass door and window. Three of those rounds traveled into an adjacent apartment with a man, pregnant woman and 5-year-old inside.

None of the rounds fired by Hankison hit Taylor.

Cosgrove and Mattingly fired their shots through the apartment's front door.

In June 2020, LMPD announced Hankison would be fired. In a termination letter, then-Interim Chief Robert Schroeder wrote Hankison "displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life" when he "blindly fired ten rounds" into Taylor's apartment.

Gotfryd, the prosecutor, said jurors will also hear from Cosgrove, who will say what Hankison did "wasn't just wrong, it was unthinkable. It was not justified by any threat, and it was contrary to police training" and "unbelievably dangerous."

While Gotfryd said Cosgrove fired 16 rounds at a person whom he saw shooting, he was fired at LMPD for being unable to identify a target when he fired.

She also said Taylor and her sister, who worked night shifts, had covered the sliding-glass door and window Hankison fired through with curtains and blinds, so they could keep light out and sleep during the day.

Byrd, the defense attorney, said Hankison was not fleeing to safety when he moved away from the apartment's front door, but rather was moving out of the "fatal funnel" to respond in accordance with training.

He also portrayed LMPD training for average officers as ineffectual, saying they were trained on slideshows and paper shooting targets.

"Paper targets don’t shoot back," he said.

Byrd contended that despite the curtains and blinds, light could be seen through the window and sliding-glass door.

He also said Hankison saw a person in a "rifle-fire stance" after the door was breached and believed his fellow officers were being "executed."

Byrd said a witness would tell the jury Hankison was not the last to fire.

Jurors hear from neighbor, LMPD officer on first day

The first witness jurors heard from on Thursday was Chelsey Napper, who was a pregnant neighbor of Taylor's at the time of the raid.

Napper told the court she had colored with her 5-year-old child in their apartment's kitchen table before putting him to bed and going to sleep herself. She was awoken early in the morning when gunfire broke out next door.

"It sounded like a bomb went off," she said, before going on to describe bullets passing through her apartment, spraying dry wall.

One of the bullets shattered a sliding-glass door in her apartment. She said another passed within a foot or two of her son's head.

Napper did not know it was a police officer's shots that were flying through her home.

"I was shocked, I couldn't believe it," she said. "...You're supposed to be able to call police officers for help."

Napper has a pending federal lawsuit against LMPD and Hankison over the raid.

Later, the jury heard from Sgt. Mike Campbell, who was on the scene that night and said he could not see through the windows of Taylor's apartment.

Campbell said he did not shoot through the window where he was positioned, because he could not see through it.

"I didn't have a target," he said. "...It doesn't do any good to just shoot through the window at that point."

When Campbell saw bullet holes in the windows, he thought officers had taken fire from inside the apartment through the windows, because he did not think an officer would fire through them as it was not possible to see a target.

Hankison previously acquitted on state charges, now facing federal trial

In September 2020, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced a grand jury had indicted Hankison on three wanton endangerment counts related to the three people in the apartment adjacent to Taylor's. He and the other officers were not directly charged in her death on the state level.

Hankison was found not guilty on these state charges in March 2022 and has since had those criminal charges expunged.

Hankison testified in Jefferson Circuit Court that he was trying to protect two fellow detectives at the apartment’s front door, including Mattingly, who was shot in the leg by Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend. Walker said he thought the police were intruders.

The FBI determined a shot fired by Cosgrove killed Taylor.

Ana Alvarez Briñez contributed reporting. Reach reporter Josh Wood at jwood@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @JWoodJourno. Reach reporter Rachel Smith at rksmith@courier-journal.com

More: Ex-LMPD Detective Brett Hankison's civil rights trial starts Monday. What to know

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Brett Hankison on trial in civil rights case over Breonna Taylor raid