Jury visits Breonna Taylor's apartment in trial for officer accused of firing 'wildly'

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jurors in the trial of former Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison visited Breonna Taylor's apartment Friday to see the scene for themselves.

Hankison is facing three counts of wanton endangerment after being accused of firing "wildly" into Taylor's apartment during the execution of search warrant. The charges stem from the rounds Hankison shot that wound up in Taylor's neighbors' apartment. At the time, three people were inside. No other officers involved in the raid were charged with a crime.

Testimony Friday morning centered on ballistics, and several firearms experts were called. But there is not an argument about that information from defense attorneys.

"For this search, we cut into dry walls, large holes out of the dry walls," FBI agent Kasey Jones said. "That's not something we commonly do but for this search, specifically, other items of evidence that may have been inside the walls."

Prosecutors and defense attorneys established early in the trial that the jury would be allowed to view the property for themselves. The jurors spent about 30 minutes at the Springfield Drive apartment looking both inside and outside. They were accompanied by sheriff's deputies, prosecutors, defense attorneys and Judge Ann Bailey Smith. The jury was not allowed to ask questions.

Judge Ann Bailey Smith at Breonna Taylor's apartment

Some of the evidence presented Thursday included statements Hankison made to LMPD investigators about a week and a half after the shooting. Hankison told police investigators March 23 that as officers burst into Taylor’s apartment, he saw someone inside holding a gun he was “certain” was an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

But Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron found that Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a single shot from a 9 mm pistol. It was the only shot he fired, according to Walker’s own statement and Cameron’s conclusions. Numerous court documents, interviews and other records confirmed that there was no rifle found at the scene. No records indicate Taylor fired a weapon.

Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who worked as an emergency medical technician, was shot multiple times during a botched narcotics raid on March 13, 2020. Louisville officers burst through her door using a narcotics warrant, and drew fire from Taylor's boyfriend, who thought an intruder was breaking in. Two officers at the door returned fire, killing Taylor.

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