Former Louisville detective pleads not guilty in Breonna Taylor case

FILE PHOTO: Former Louisville police detective Brett Hankison poses for a booking photograph at Shelby County Detention Center in Shelbyville, Kentucky, U.S. September 23, 2020. Picture taken September 23, 2020. Shelby County Detention Center/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) – The only Louisville, Kentucky, police officer indicted by a grand jury investigating the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor pleaded not guilty to three counts of wanton endangerment at his arraignment on Monday, local media reported.

Former detective Brett Hankison was indicted on Wednesday and charged with endangering Taylor’s neighbors with bullets he fired into an adjacent apartment during a March 13 drug raid. The other two officers involved in Taylor’s shooting were not charged at all.

Taylor, 26, a Black emergency medical technician and aspiring nurse, was struck by six bullets moments after she and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were roused from bed in the commotion of the raid.

Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department in June for his actions during the raid on Taylor’s apartment.

He made his plea during an audio conference call before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Ann Bailey Smith, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.

Reporting By Andrew Hay; Editing by Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman

source: reuters.com