Jury selection has begun in the the only criminal trial to result from the raid that killed Breonna Taylor, the Associated Press reports. Former officer Brett Hankison is charged with low-level felonies for wildly firing his service weapon during the March 2020 raid. Activists point out that Hankison is not being charged with the actual killing and complain that other officers involved are not being held accountable. Jury selection is expected to take weeks because the case is high profile and it is difficult to find jurors who have not heard of Taylor. Other officers from the raid may testify.
Taylor's death resulted in Louisville banning the use of so-called no-knock warrants and an on-going investigation of racial bias in the Louisville Metro Police Department. Louisville paid $12 million to Taylor's mother in a wrongful death lawsuit. The warrant police used for the raid was found to be flawed. Trials like Hankison's follow a wave of cases fueled by 2020 protests against police. The other officers involved in the Taylor raid are no longer part of the police force. Myles Cosgrove, who likely fired the shot that killed Taylor, was fired last January.
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