LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Questioning of potential jurors begins Tuesday for the trial of a former Kentucky police officer involved in a botched raid that killed Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville emergency medical technician.Brett Hankison has pleaded not guilty to three counts of wanton endangerment for allegedly firing wildly into the apartments of Taylor’s neighbors during the March 2020 raid.
Taylor, a Black woman, was shot multiple times. No drugs were found, and the warrant was later found to be flawed.No officers were charged for causing Taylor's death, despite protests nationwide, with many demonstrators demanding that the officers involved stand trial for murder.
That set the outcome apart from two other killings of Black people at the hands of white people in 2020 that put race relations in the national spotlight: the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, and the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, who was chased by three men while running through a Georgia neighborhood.Arbery's pursuers were sentenced to life in prison for murder last month, and their federal hate crimes trial is set to begin next week.
Former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years for murder and manslaughter, and his fellow officers are now being tried in state court.RELATED: Brett Hankison trial: Jury selection starts for ex-cop involved in botched raid that killed Breonna TaylorIn the Taylor case, Kentucky's Republican Attorney General, Daniel Cameron determined that the officers fired into the woman's apartment in self-defense after her boyfriend shot at them first as they broke into her apartment.