LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Federal prosecutors want to tell jurors in former Louisville police Detective Brett Hankison's upcoming trial that he repeatedly endangered other officers and citizens even before his alleged criminally reckless actions during the March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor raid.

As part of his upcoming October trial on two counts of civil rights violations and using excessive force, prosecutors asked to present evidence in two past "aggressive" incidents involving Hankison, including driving the wrong way down Dixie Highway holding his gun out the window. 

In both incidents, according to a motion filed in U.S. District Court last week, Hankison "responded in an overly aggressive manner with his weapon drawn, disregarded his training ... and endangered his fellow officers and civilians by needlessly escalating the law enforcement response."

The motion argues that Hankison was reprimanded by the Louisville Metro Police Department for both incidents and should have been aware by the time of the Taylor raid that "such conduct was unacceptable."

Hankison is accused of firing 10 times from outside Taylor's apartment through a covered sliding glass door and blinded windows in Taylor's bedroom window, with three bullets flying into an adjacent apartment where Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper and her 5-year-old child lived.

In 2020, police sought out a search warrant for Taylor's home as part of a broader investigation that focused on drug suspect Jamarcus Glover. Police believed Glover may have been using Taylor's apartment to receive drugs and store money.

Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend, admitted to firing at police as they entered the apartment but claimed he believed the officers were intruders. He hit former officer Jonathan Mattingly.

Multiple Louisville Metro Police officers returned fire, killing Taylor. No drugs were found in her home.

This will be Hankison's third trial related to his actions the night of the raid. A federal jury in November 2023 deadlocked on two counts of civil rights violations and using excessive force.

A state Jefferson Circuit Court jury in March 2022 found Hankison not guilty on three counts of wanton endangerment.

Prosecutors did not use the evidence of Hankison previously being reprimanded for reckless actions in his other trials.

The two incidents both happened during the execution of search warrants, in 2016 and 2017, and show that Hankison's actions in the Taylor raid were "not a tactical miscalculation undertaken in good faith, but rather a willful act taken to punish someone who the defendant perceived had wronged the police," according to prosecutors.

On Oct. 19, 2016, a SWAT commander called Hankison's actions "reckless" when he drew his handgun as police watched a drug deal, yelled "he's on the roof!" and ran between the suspect and the SWAT officers who had their rifles drawn, according to the motion.

"Fortunately, the defendant's actions did not trigger crossfire, and SWAT officers eventually" arrested the suspect without injuries. But "officers on the scene remembered the incident even years later" and have told prosecutors that Hankison's interference put everyone in danger, the motion alleges.

The SWAT commander spoke with Hankison's supervisor who counseled the detective. 

In the other incident, on May 31, 2017, police were executing a search warrant at a barbershop on Dixie Highway when Hankison "aggressively" entered the scene, speeding the wrong way with his gun pointed out the window, according to the motion.

Prosecutors say a SWAT officer told Hankison's supervisor he needed to "reel" him in. "The supervisor recounted that he then 'ripped (Hankison's) ass.'"

The two previous incidents would help prove that Hankison knew shooting into Taylor's apartment was dangerous and wrong but did so anyway, which was a pattern of his policing practices, prosecutors argue.

"In both instances the defendant ignored his training and jeopardized a warrant execution so that he could brandish his weapon and personally confront a suspect, even though the safer course – and the rules established by his policy and training – called for restraint," according to the motion. "Both times, as during the warrant execution at Ms. Taylor's home, the defendant's reckless intervention endangered his fellow officers and innocent civilians."

Prosecutors want to include the evidence through testimony from other police officers.

The motion from prosecutors did not include an incident in which Hankison drove the wrong way down South 1st Street to a drug scene in October 2016 and struck a detective, causing serious injuries.

Hankison struck a detective, who was sent tumbling several feet, suffering a fractured spine and other injuries, according to documents in Hankison's personnel file.

Two other offers went to check on the injured officer while Hankison gave chase to a fleeing suspect. Hankison was suspended for four days.

One investigator recommended Hankison be criminally charged with failure to show due regard because "he should have known which direction he was going, how fast he was going and whether his lights and siren were on," according to documents in the investigation. He was not charged.

During the previous federal trial, LMPD officers testified that Hankison's actions on the night of the Taylor raid were "shocking," unfathomably dangerous" and "stomach churning."

He fired "blindly, spraying bullets through two covered windows, ripping through walls into a neighboring apartment" where a family and a child were sleeping, said prosecutor Michael Songer, with the U.S. Department of Justice, in his closing arguments.

Former defense attorney Stew Mathews told jurors they would have to put themselves in Hankison's shoes at the time, think about what he was seeing and experiencing as an officer was shot and dozens of bullets were fired after they burst into Taylor's home.

"If someone fires at the police, the police are going to fire back at you, and that's exactly what happened here," Mathews said.

Hankison testified he wasn't part of the investigation leading up to the raid and didn't even know the adjacent apartment was there. All Hankison knew was that fellow officers were under fire, he believed from an assault rifle, and that one officer had been shot.

He admitted he was mistaken, and the muzzle flashes were actually coming from Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove, and that Walker only fired one shot from a handgun at police.

"Was I wrong that Mr. Walker shot more than one shot? I know that now," Hankison testified. "I fired to stop the threat, sir."

But he said if given a chance for a do-over, he "would do the exact same thing" because he was trying to save the lives of his fellow officers.

The trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 15 and last about two weeks. 

This story will be updated. 

CORRECTION: This article incorrectly described the circumstances involving a 2017 police drug arrest in which former Det. Brett Hankison was accused by other officers of driving the wrong way down Dixie Highway and endangering police and citizens. 

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