Brett Hankison is a former Louisville Metro Police detective who is charged with violation of civil rights by using excessive force in the March 13, 2020 death of Breonna Taylor.

The 46-year-old Hankison turned himself into the Oldham County Detention Center on Thursday. 

Hankison was charged in the second indictment with civil rights charges which reported that the detective used willful excessive force while operating in an official police officer’s capacity when he fired his service weapon into Breonna Taylor’s apartment through a covered window and covered glass door.

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The 26-year-old Taylor was shot and killed in her Louisville home on March 13, 2020, by three police officers who were involved in the shooting while at least seven other officers forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing operations.

According to the US Department of Justice, the former LMPD detective has been hit with two civil rights charges.

The first count charges him for depriving Taylor and a person staying with her with constitutional rights in the apartment and firing shots through a bedroom window covered with blinds and a blackout curtain.

 Count Two charges Hankison with violating three of Taylor’s neighbors’ constitutional rights by shooting through a sliding door that was covered with blinds and a curtain. 

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The stated indictment alleges that many of Hankison’s bullets traveled through Taylor’s home’s wall and into the apartment unit occupied by her neighbors.

Hankison is accused of using a dangerous weapon and attempting to kill on both counts.

The said incident happened during the initial phases of the Covid-19 pandemic in the USA and the country underwent many lockdowns. There was little public response during the initial weeks after Taylor’s death and the government declined to provide any substantial details during this time.

But later on, the death stirred months of protests across the city of Louisville and different parts of America which are heavily black-people-dominated. The protests aggravated more country-wide protests by people of all colors against racial abuse and the death of black people by the hands of police, namely George Floyd.